With Everything to lose
by The Watchman
Summary: A Birds of a Feather sidestory set during the Equatorial Union Civil war. How far will you go to protect the things most precious to you? For Leon Gaiman, no matter what it takes. Even killing Ken DiFalco.
1. Left with little choice

**Disclaimer:** Ken DiFalco is from Solid Shark's Birds of a Feather/ Cry of the Falcon and is being used with permission. Richard Yamato Chung, his team, the Primus and Secundus Mobilesuits plus weapons/ equipment and the Equatorial Union Civil War setting are of Ominae's Rebellion also being used with permission. Gundam Seed belongs to Bandai Animation.

**A/N:** Hey there, basically, this is sidestory for Solid Shark's Birds of a feather/ Cry of the Falcon and Ominae's Rebellion. This is essentially my first attempt at making a fanfic of a fanfic, so if there's anything I did wrong, please let me know.

Also, I'd like to thank Solid and Ominae for letting me use their stuff. I like to also thank Goose, his "Beware the left eye" fic inspired me to make this fic. Hope you like this, guys.

**With everything to lose**

By the Watchman

**Point One: Left with little choice**

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**Sembawang, Singapore, Equatorial Union**

The sky was grey, constantly threatening to rain, though sun occasionally peaks through the clouds occasionally. Wind coming from the Johore straight pushed inland, making the city cold.

A unit of five ZGMF-1017 GINNs, three TFA-2 ZuOOTs and one ZGMF-515 CGUE were hidden among the buildings on the northern part of the city. They were who had volunteered to assist the Equatorial Union Reformed Military in ousting the OMNI-Enforcer backing Chua government.

It has been only several months since the start of the civil war but the EURM was gaining more ground than the Chua government and OMNI can ever hope to recover. Now, they were making preparations for a possible full-scale attack at the surviving loyalist and OMNI forces in Singapore to push them out of the island once and for all. After that, it would be the turn of the Johore-Singapore causeway bridge to fall.

The ZAFT volunteers had been assigned to this location several hours ago, rotating with another unit which sent to the Woodlands. This area had been an active battle zone since the attempted OMNI invasion of Pasir Ris which had recently been the EURM's base of operations.

Intel from base had informed the volunteers that a small unit of loyalist forces was the in area. They lie and wait for the said unit to come.

"C'mon, commander," one of the pilots, Shinn Asuka mutters. "Let's just search around get this over with. There's nothing out here."

"Quiet down," The unit commander in the Cgue snaps, fed up by his constant whining. "If you really want to go back to base, you can go back by yourself. Our orders are to hold this area, remember? If a kid like you can't follow something that simple, you won't last long in ZAFT."

Shinn was about to give him a piece of his mind, when two other ginn pilots, Lunamaria Hawke and Rey Za Burrel, stop him.

"Shinn," Lunamaria says with a stern tone. "Let it go."

"He has a point, Shinn." Rey says a little more diplomatically, "We have orders to hold this position."

Shinn grit his teeth, but he nods. "Right… Sorry…"

"Cut the chatter," the commander calls out. "Maintain radio silence."

_Oh blow off, asshole._ Shinn thought.

One of the other ginn pilots calls out, "Sir I'm picking up something!"

Not far from their position, a unit of loyalist EUMS-01 Primuses, GAT-01 Strike Daggers and GAT/A-01E2 Buster Daggers were slowly trudging their way through, clueless to entrenched enemy mobilesuits ahead. The ZAFT units had the latest jamming systems and their sensors were an older model, they didn't know they were there.

The loyalists had the advantage of numbers and beam weapons on their side, but they lacked the rigorous training and experience of the ZAFT volunteers.

The loyalist force walks past them and the buildings they hid in.

Shinn lets the first three mobilesuits pass, his breathing began to climb. When the fourth one showed its face, Shinn sticks his machinegun on the side of the cockpit and pulls the trigger.

They others also pounce, Lunamaria fires her Barrus heavy particle gun, wiping out the two lead Primuses. Rey fires his Pardus' missiles and machine at the same time. The ZuOOTs, hidden in different positions, fire their machineguns, unable to use their heavy guns in such close quarters.

Despite that, the skirmish quickly swings to the ZAFT volunteers' favor, in first minutes of the exchange all of the Buster daggers were taken out. The surviving Strike Daggers and Primuses scramble to hide behind buildings they could get to, not bothering to fire back, all the ZAFT pilots had to do was keep a finger on the trigger. They didn't even have to use evasive maneuvers.

"We spent the last few hours waiting for these schmucks?" One pilot snorts, "I think we should've done what the Asuka kid said, we should've just swept the area and got it over with."

Shinn meanwhile, had abandoned his machinegun and pulls out his MA-M3 heavy sword. He charges at two hapless Strike Daggers. He thrusts his blade through the cockpit of one, and then rips it out on one side. He repeatedly hacks the other to pieces.

He would've fallen victim to one Primus' back attack with its FERFRANS 60 mm ML-1 beam rifle if it weren't for Lunamaria who blows it away.

"Shinn!" She yells angrily, "Watch what your doing why won't you?-! You're going to get yourself killed if you keep this up!"

"Yeah, yeah," He mutters as goes at another Strike Dagger. "Just watch my back."

Lunamaria makes a face as she watches him plow through the enemy, "I can't believe that guy…"

"**King Six! King Six!" **

One of the unit's sub officers yells at his radio as his Primus hides from the withering fire. The head officer had been killed at the beginning of the ambush, command of the unit was now unfortunately up to him "This is Charlie Two, we're being pinned down in 37 Alpha-Foxtrot, requesting immediate back up ASAP! Repeat, requesting immediate back-up!"

The officer repeats the message several times until he gets a response.

"Charlie Two, this King Six, back up is on route. Sandman will be with you shortly."

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**Somewhere in the Johore Straight**

A V/STOL transport carrier lifts off an OMNI-Enforcer Spengler-class Mobilesuit carrier, its destination was the battle in Sembawang. It cargo, one GAT-02L2 Dagger L, it was armed with an AQM/E-X02 Sword Striker. The Dagger L didn't look special, it was no different to the countless others like it. But what made it special was its pilot, it was an Earth Alliance ace who made his name during the battle of Porta Panama.

Inside the cockpit, the pilot's brown eyes stare blankly at the back of his helmet, reflecting on what he was about to get him self into. Considering the possibility, he may die in this battle, just like he did in the last battle and the one before it.

He sighs, running one hand through his short ash brown hair, quickly brushing off such thoughts, because he was a professional and he had a job to do.

He puts on his helmet.

"Fat One, this is Sandman, I'm good to go."

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_My name is Leon Gaiman, I was born in the Philippines in the Equatorial Union in 40CE. My mother was from the Union while father was from Atlantic Federation. _

_Unlike my father, I never really had any prejudice against coordinators… I didn't really saw the point. They're smarter and healthier than us naturals, diseases weren't a serious issue for them and heck, they're better looking than us. _

_But isn't what all our parents want their kids to be, the best among our peers?_

_Eh, forget it… Anyway, I fought in the battle for Panama, I was in a Strike Dagger back then. Before the Gungnir went off, I managed to make a grand total of twenty mobilesuit kills, a first among naturals. That was enough for me to be declared an ace, they called me the Panamanian Cobra. But I'm better known for the name I earned as an operative in the Atlantic Federation Rangers._

_The Sandman, the man always puts his targets to sleep._

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**Sembawang, Singapore, Equatorial Union**

It doesn't take long for the V/STOL transport to reach the city, it doesn't take long for it to attract enemy fire either. Several rounds strike the plane's underbelly.

"It's too dangerous to make a dust-off," The transport pilot informs the Dagger L pilot. "You'll have to jump off."

"Copy," Leon replies without complaint. As he gets his unit ready to jump, he look down below, what he sees doesn't make him feel any better.

Charlie Two was almost annihilated, it was reduced to little more than six mobilesuits out twenty two. He couldn't tell how many hostiles there were from his position.

Just then, the transport suddenly jolts, almost making the Dagger L lose its balance.

"We're hit!" The pilot yells, "Bail out! We're going down!"

"Gotcha," Lunamaria watches at the transport she hit go down. She smiles satisfyingly. She then spots Leon's unit as it jumps off.

"Commander," She reports to her current superior. "We have another one who just came in, it's just one Dagger L though."

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_Though I fight on the side of OMNI-Enforcer, I never once believed we were fighting for a just cause. Not even during the opening day of the war. _

_That's thanks to Blue Cosmos, when they ruined my life and my daughter's during Copernicus when they bombed the UN council. _

_They also took away my daughter's mother, my wife. She was an interpreter for the General assembly, she knew at least seven languages along with multiple dialects._

_I lost all respect for President Copeland's administration, who laid the blame for the tragedy to coordinators even though it there was evidence that it was actually Blue Cosmos' handiwork. Later, that evidence will mysteriously disappear in the FBI's archives._

_Six days later, war was declared, and three days after that, the biggest atrocity to human life occurs, Bloody Valentine._

_Being a former Green Beret and a member of the reserves, I was immediately called back into service. I would have deserted by leaving the country, but President Chua was cooperating with the Atlantic Federation, arresting any deserters that enter the country._

_I had no choice, I left my daughter, Kari, in the care of a relative and went to report back for duty._

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"**Typical,"**

Leon sighs as he uses his unit's verniers to slow his fall. As he lands on top of a building, it finally starts to rain.

No sooner his Dagger L's feet land on something solid, a Ginn start firing at him his Barrus heavy particle cannon.

"Real typical," he mutters as he jumps off the building, he fires his Panzer Eisen rocket anchor at a water tower, attaching itself firmly. He uses to swing around and slow his fall, knowing he would be an easy target if he used his verniers.

Below, Leon spots a ZuOOT firing its machineguns at a target. He pulls his Schwert Gewehr anti-ship and points it downwards, as his anchor's line reaches its limit, he makes it detach.

The blade pierces right through the ZuOOT as he crashes down onto him, he then rips it up through the front. He jumps a little distance away before the ZuOOT explodes.

"We lost Danvers!" Lunamaria calls to the others. After seeing that stunt, she stares at the enemy with disbelief.

A hundred meters away, Shinn turns around to her direction. "What?-! How's that possible?-!"

His companion, Rey, didn't seem undaunted. "We better take that guy before he makes some damage."

"Right," Shinn follows eagerly, arming himself with his machinegun.

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_Before Panama, I serve largely as a commando in the South African Union, a puppet state of the Atlantic Federation. They didn't have any real strength to contribute to OMNI-Enforcer aside from their Victoria massdriver. The military was a joke, even the basic infantry was poorly trained and equipped. _

_They couldn't keep the local guerillas in check without the help of Atlantic Federation soldiers and Blue Cosmos' funding. If I wasn't going in infiltration operations in the African Community, I was in the SAU assassinating rebel leaders and militants. I slit throats, planted bombs in homes or cars, sometimes I even used poison. And these acts of murder could occur in an isolated house out in the countryside or in a busy street in downtown Johannesburg. And it didn't matter if it was the son of the president, I was literally sent killed anyone, anytime and anyplace._

_What would Kari say when she finds out what her father did for a living?_

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"**Die racist!"**

A Ginn attacks the Dagger L with its machine whilst charging toward it. Leon runs diagonally toward him, using his arms and anti-ship sword to protect cockpit as he went in. When they were in close range, the ginn pulls out its heavy sword and swings.

The Dagger L crouches down to avoid the attack, he then tackles it as he stood back up, he then pulls out his ES04B beam saber and cuts the Ginn in half from the left shoulder to right hip. Leon jumps back before it explodes.

He immediately goes for another target. This time, it was a Ginn guarding ZuOOT, before them were firing at him. The Dagger L stows away its saber and hold the Schwert Gewehr with both hands. He charges toward them.

Running from side to side, evades most of the bullets. As he got closer, the ZuOOT pilot panics and plans to fire his twin dual heavy canons. As he does this, Leon suddenly lets go us his sword and tackles the ginn with both arms, he then throws the Ginn at the ZuOOT. When the canons went off, both units explode.

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_I tried hard to see a silver lining in what I was doing, but I'd be lying to myself to say no one was hurt by one of my misdeeds. I was murderer, a killer for a bigoted organization. I was nothing but a dog._

_In a way, the Atlantic Federation itself was a puppet state, and its puppet master was Blue Cosmos._

_My guilt grew and sanity dwindled as the atrocities added up, Cyclops traps in Endymion and Alaska, the indiscriminate nuclear attacks in Orb, Victoria and Boaz. _

_"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Joseph Stalin said that one. Boy does it ring true._

_I never found that elusive silver lining._

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"**Damn you…!"**

Lunamaria gets into position to fire her Barrus at him.

Leon gets out of the way in time, he uses his rocket anchor to pick up his sword and runs toward the building for cover

"Charlie Two," he calls the surviving members of the squad. "Grab any survivors and get of here, I'll hold 'em back as long as I can."

"Copy Sandman," The Primuses and Strike Dagger remaining began to move, picking up wounded comrades as they went. "We owe you one for this."

"Buy me a beer after this is done," Leon replies with a smirk. "Then we'll call it even."

After they had left, he checks around the corner the building to see where the ginn with the Barrus was.

Lunamaria fires another one when she sees the Dagger L's head stick out. Leon quickly ducks back.

He stays behind the building to weight his options, along with checking his scanners. They told him there was at least one ZuOOT left, had to take those out, along with that Ginn what the Barrus that shot him down. If another V/STOL dusted those in Charlie Two off, it was a sitting duck for their fire.

He places his anti-ship sword back on its rack, and pulls out both his beam sabers. The Dagger L jumps out of cover and runs toward Lunamaria, side jumping the hostile fire.

The young ZAFT academy trainee yells as she watches the Dagger L as it was about to skewer her ginn with both sabers.

"Luna!" Shinn tackles Leon's suit to one side, the ZAFT trainee from Orb then was about to plant his heavy sword as it lay on the ground.

"Take this!"

However, Leon was quickly to recover, and swings one saber horizontally, slashing away the ginn's head and arms effectively making it defenseless. He then kicks the remains of the suit away.

"Shinn!" Lunamaria aims her Barrus at the Dagger L but Leon cuts off the barrel with one saber and thrust the other through the ginn's head. As a final insult, Leon cuts the ginn's legs.

After they were dealt with, Leon checks his scanners, wondering where the hell that last ZuOOT was. He doesn't have to look too long.

Machinegun fire strikes the side of his machine, he uses the rocket anchor launcher as a shield. When he looks at that the direction, he sees the last ZuOOT, along with the last ginn and the cgue.

"They're making this easy…" He comments as he goes at them.

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_I was caricature of myself near the end of the war, I took in lot of stuff I would never take before. I lost all the discipline and self-respect I had coming into the conflict._

_I hated the Earth Alliance, Blue Cosmos and its leaders who use got so many kill for their nonsensical ideals._

"_For the Preservation of a pure and blue world"_

_Bullshit._

_But most of all, I hated myself. I came to feel that my daughter didn't need me, the money I had saved was more than enough to pay for her education until college. And my relatives could take care of her pretty damn well. So I made arrangements, getting things in place, so as Kari can live without me._

_After that, I made a resolve, the next time I was going to take out my mobilesuit, I was going to get myself killed. Hoping it would be someone from the True ZAFT faction. _

_This was just a week before the 2__nd__ Battle of Jachin Due._

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**In the distance, **

Another EURM unit was moving into the area. This one was composed largely of six EUMS-02 Secundus, the successor to the Primus. They were supported by five EURM Primuses.

"Where the heck is that ZAFT volunteer unit?" Hamid Abbas mutters, looking around the surrounding area. The rain was getting worse, visibility was also getting worse by the minute.

"They're supposed to be just around here right?"

The unit leader and Hamid's friend Richard Yamato Chung, or Rick as he was known to friends and family, was a little unsure himself. "They're supposed to be here…"

"Maybe they met loyalist forces," Tim Wallace suggests, "And got wiped out."

"Don't say that," Rick gives Tim's Secundus a fixed stare. "Those went to all the trouble fighting with us and or cause, don't talk like they're just pawns."

"Hey, hey," Tim holds up his hands inside his cockpit. "Easy, Tiger, I said 'maybe' didn't I? Don't be so touchy."

Ricks sighs, "Yeah, sorry Tim."

"It's alright," he then grins. "It's because of that Hawke girl isn't it?"

Hamid and the other Secundus pilots, Avir Olmert, Davan Sahril and Luis Mendez all also grinned. They were all Rick's buddies and all knew he had something in him that attracted women, whether he liked it or not.

"No, it's not just because of Lunamaria." Rick scowls, "I'm also worried for Shinn, he gets reckless when things aren't going his way."

"Guys," Davan calls to the others. "I'm picking up something… It's the volunteer group, they're just over a hundred yards from us, looks like they're getting hammered!"

Rick instantly goes into a commander's mindset, "Move out, extended line formation. I'll scout ahead, get ready to flank them on the side if we need to."

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_I was part of a strike force supporting the attack on Jachin Due. The things that happened there, I would never believed it if I never saw it firsthand. _

_First, the sheer scale of the battle, it was huge! _

_This wasn't battle of several dozen mobilesuits and a couple of ships, the numbers reached to the hundreds if not thousands. The line of battle stretched for miles._

_Next were the attempts of mass-genocide also happened during that battle, first the Peacemaker force attempting a Junius Seven on the other hourglasses, thankfully that was stopped by the True ZAFT faction. Then came the firing of that giant beam weapon, it annihilated our reinforcements coming from the moon._

_But what really struck me was the dedication of both sides – or should I say three sides, True ZAFT counted – by that time I learned several ZAFT frequencies. _

_I listened in, what I heard surprised me._

_They weren't fighting and dying out there for causes anymore, on all sides, they were fighting for their families, friend, comrades, for each other. Those who knew they about to die, called out not a slogan like the ones who in the beginning of the war, they called love ones, the ones they care about. Sometimes, saying sorry for not living through the war. Other times, asking others to live their sakes and sacrifice. That happened again and again, it stunned me, to able to experience that. _

_And there I was, trying to get myself killed. _

_I survived the battle, I came out of a different person than I was when I came in. I was like my old self except for the first time I was at peace with myself and my wife's death._

_I felt I could move on._

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"**He's just one mobilesuit!"**

The unit commander in the Cgue curses as he fires he machinegun at the Dagger L, "How the hell can he make this much damage?"

"Maybe that's the reason why the only sent him," Rey comments, disturbingly calm given the situation. "Because he's all they really need to send."

At the same time, Leon pulls out a Stiletto anti-armor penetrator and throws it, the rocket propelled weapon lands directly into the Cgue's abdomen, going into the cockpit and killing the pilot.

Rey tries to aim for the Dagger L's cockpit but Leon was shielding it with the rocket anchor launcher. The ZuOOT a little distance behind Rey fires his machineguns, they were of a much powerful compared to what the Ginns and Cgue were armed with, they would cut through the Dagger L's armor without much problem.

Leon cuts off the arms off Rey's Ginn, he grabs the head. And with one hand, he uses the mobilesuit as a shield as he moves close to the last ZuOOT, letting the ginn take the hits.

When he was close enough, the Dagger L dash to one side and get behind it. He pulls out the Schwert Gewehr and was about to force it through the ZuOOT.

"No...!" Shinn yells helplessly as he watches from his disabled suit.

The sword goes through it, he apparently went through a hydraulic line as when he does so as a black liquid sprays over the face and upper torso of the Dagger L.

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_I resigned from the Atlantic Federation Army as soon as I got back to earth. It felt so good to hold my daughter after more than a year and a half of non-stop war, missions and killing. _

_I wanted a fresh start, not just for me, but for my daughter as well._

_I packed our belongings and I sold off what we couldn't take. We were going to my other home, the Equatorial Union. _

_Yes, I know it's not exactly the ideal place to rear a child with the civil war going on. But the Philippines was relatively safe since it was in the EURM's full control and it was unlikely the Chua government would retake it with rebels to close to Kuala Lumpur. I also wanted to volunteer to EURM, as a way of sorts to atone for my past. _

_We got there by first going through the south border to the USSA. Through there, we took a flight that took us to Carpentaria, Oceanic Union and we finally made a booking for a flight to the Equatorial Union._

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**As Leon finishes the last ZuOOT off**

A beam shot flies past just over his head, the Dagger L looks to the direction and spots a Secundus with its FERFRANS MKR-1 beam assault rifle.

"Puta…" Rick curses, he was hoping to shoot before he could kill the ZuOOT but he fired a millisecond too late.

He then notes that the Dagger L was using a Sword Striker unit which surprises him. Normally, OMNI Daggers and Dagger Ls were armed with either Aile or Launcher. There weren't very many pilots skilled enough to utilize the Sword striker effectively. Rick also notes the Dagger L was alone.

_This is one cocky dude, _He thought. _He must an ace… but which one?_

He doubts it was Neo Roanoke, he used an Aile Striker. It couldn't be Rena Imelia or Jane Houston either since they used other mobilesuits. And no way in hell could it be Ken Bederstadt or Jake Clinton, they may use the Dagger L but they'd never go out without support.

"Well," he stows away his rifle and pulls out his Kris beam saber. "Only one way to find out…"

"King Six to all units," a voices call from Leon's radio. "Charlie Two has been evacuated…"

"Good for them," Leon mumbles as he saw the Secundus seemingly wanting a duel, he obliges, pulling out his own saber.

_Secundus… _he thought as he slowly walks toward it. _There're currently six of those right? That means…_

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_I know what you're thinking, it's 'why the hell I'm still serving OMNI-Enforcer then?'_

_Well, after several days of settling in, people from Blue Cosmos managed to steal the most important thing in the world from me…_

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**As Rick's companions slowly move in**

His Secundus and the enemy Dagger L were busy exchanging beam saber blows with one another, he uses his spatial awareness to predict where the next saber strike would take place. Despite this advantage, he finds that his opponent was matching his strikes perfectly.

"Either this guy's got spatial awareness," Rick grits his teeth. "Or he's just plain good!"

"Hey OMNI boy!" He calls out, "You're not bad, care to give me name?"

He heard a chuckle from his radio, "I was right, this Secundus belongs to the EURM's poster boy and resident ace. As for your question, my name's Leon Gaiman."

Rick blinks with surprise, "'The Sandman?'"

"The very same, and I'll put you to sleep EU Sergeant Chung!" Leon makes an attempt to cut the Secundus in half like he did with the ginn just a while ago. Rick reels his machine back, he lets go of his Hindalco anti-beam shield and got his other beam saber out at the ready.

"Give it your best shot, Gaiman." Rick hisses. "First Bederstadt, Ayrault and Clinton… Now you too?-! Did the OMNI-bastards brainwash all you guys or something?-! You were born in this country weren't you?-!"

"I just follow orders Rick," Leon counters, pulling out his second beamsaber. "That's what soldiers are for."

"Even if it means forsaking your country men?-!" The young EU Guardsman says with anger, "You yourself must have seen OMNI's atrocities first hand, do you really want to serve for those kind of people?-!"

"Of course I don't want to!" Leon snaps back at him, "Those people can rot in hell for all I care!"

The two lunge at each other and their beam weapons clash, they tried again and again to strike a fatal blow against their opponent.

"Then why?-!" Rick was finally getting the advantage, he was now firmly in the offense and Leon was in defense. "Why are you still fighting for them?-!"

_Damn_, Leon thought. _This kid's better than I thought… 'Gotta think of something and fast…_

Just the ground around suddenly erupts with multiple machinegun rounds. They both look above, they find a GAT-333 Raider Full Spec going at them.

"Leon!" Its pilot yells. "Grab on!"

"Sei!" Leon instinctively kicks Rick Secundus away as it descends. The Dagger L then grabs on, the Raider lifts it away and begins to head back to their carrier in the Johore Straight.

"Gaiman!" Rick's Secundus looks up as the Sandman gets away. He fires several shots with his FERFRANS MKR-1 beam assault rifle to no avail.

"You really want to know why I'm still fighting for the Alliance, Chung?" Leon calls. "They've got something important to me!"

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…_They got my daughter…_

_I don't how it happened, I was careful to cover our tracks going to the EU and we were living under aliases. The only thing that can explain how they found me so soon was they knew all along. They waited for me to let my guard down and get the drop on me._

_A day after Kari disappeared, I got a call, they said they had my daughter and I was follow what they wanted if I wanted her back to alive and not in pieces. _

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**Ten minutes later, OMNI-Enforcer Spengler-class Pershing, on the Johore Straight**

The Raider Full Spec that evacuated Leon's Dagger L carefully hovers above the deck. Leon lets go of the Raider's arms and lands on the deck. The aerial mobilesuit lands beside him. They both walk toward the deck elevator, heading to the hangar below.

After parking his mobilesuit on its regular spot, Leon powers down. He rips off his helmet as the cockpit opens, breathing a steady pace. After several moments, he exits the cockpit.

As he got out, he hears his name being called out and turns to the direction the Raider. He spots the pilot, young woman with long black hair and green eyes waving at him.

"Just another day in the office, eh Gaiman?" She calls out with a smile.

Leon manages himself to smile and wave back.

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_That was Lindsei Satou, she's been essentially my partner since the Third Battle for Victoria during the war. Sei was the one who kept me sane through the final days of the war, keeping me from going crazy all the way, I owed her my life. _

_She too was an ace, she made fifteen enemy kills during the Battle of Orb and earned the title the 'Jaeger of Orb'. It was ironic and painful for her, since she originally was from Orb before her family moved to the Atlantic Federation. Sei considered herself a citizen of Orb opposed to a citizen of the AF, she wanted to go back there when the last war ended. But she felt she would never be welcome there and chose not to. _

_In a way, Sei was like me. We were both left with little choice on how our lives would go. All thanks to the last war and Blue Cosmos._

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**The two aces walked together, making small talk as they headed to the locker room.**

Just as they were to leave, the doors slide open, two officers exited. Both stopped when they saw them, stood attention. Sei made a salute, Leon only stood.

One officer wore a strange mask that eerily reminded him of that strange ZAFT officer he had met during the battle of JOSH-A, that particular officer wounded him. He was lucky just to survive that let alone the Cyclops blast. He had the fortune to get onto a Kingfisher 33SP that escaped inland, avoiding Ken DiFalco's assault and ZAFT mobilesuits, along with the Cyclops.

"I see you've survived your first skirmish with the enemy here," Neo Roanoke comments. "It's quite an accomplishment actually, considering the EURM's mercenary troops are concentrated in this area. You're something else, Lt. Gaiman. You too Ens. Satou."

"Thank you sir," Sei replies. Leon doesn't say anything, he simply stood. The officer next to Roanoke, the ship's captain clears his throat, frowning at the pilot, wanting him to show respect to the man.

But Neo held out a hand, "Its okay captain, it doesn't matter if he doesn't want to speak, he has his reasons."

He then holds out his hand, "It's been an honor to meet you."

Leon spots a piece of paper in hand, in between the palm and the thumb.

He takes the hand, "You too, sir."

Neo smiles nodding, the captain also nods, thankful his upstart pilot at least shook his hand.

When the officers left, Sei looks at the corner of her eye to Leon, "So, what did you get?"

Leon opens his hand, the paper was a small paper sachet, he looks inside and finds a USB.

He held it up and examined it, "We'll find out soon enough."

**Shooting range, Spengler-class Pershing somewhere in the Johore straight**

"Oh, Leon, Oh, Leon, you ain't comin' back alive from this one!" Leon Gaiman said aloud, "What the hell did yourself into?"

Lindsei 'Sei' Satou stood on the range, practicing with her Glock 22C. Leon sat a little distance behind her, on the table in front of him was his laptop, on the screen was a topographical map.

"What did I deserve to get myself into this one," Gaiman asks no one in particular with a sigh.

"You're one of the best we have L.T. That's why you have two titles under your belt isn't it?" Sei said, looking behind her.

Gaiman glances at his partner, "Maybe. C'mon and look at this, it's got suicide written all over it."

Sei holsters her weapon and walks across the room, she looks over his shoulder. The mission Blue Cosmos wanted him to do seem reasonable enough, Leon was to join an interception of a EURM transport aircraft, he was to head to wreckage and take out any survivors. It was the next part that made her reel back in shock.

Gaiman looks over his shoulder, "I told you."

"Th-they're crazy!" Sei yells, "Leon you don't have to do this, screw them!"

Her partner looks at the screen, his hands balled into fists. "You know I can't do that. Kari's counting on me."

Sei shook her head fiercely, "You're not going to survive! Do you think they'll let her go if you die? They're going to kill her just the same!"

Leon grabs her neck, he moved so fast she didn't have time to react, slamming her to the wall.

"Well, do have a better idea?" He grits his teeth at her as he presses his hand against her throat.

Sei's eyes widen as she tries to pry his hand off, it was like a vise, it just getting tighter.

He kept his hand on her neck, she slowly chokes. "Le… Leon."

"Pl-please…st…op…" She barely manages as she struggles to breath. "Leon…"

Gaiman blinks, letting go. Sei's knees gave way as she gasps repeatedly for air.

Leon was in shock, _What… what the hell was I doing…?_

He backs away from her, "Sei… I…"

Leon suddenly snatches his laptop and runs to the door.

Sei held hand her throat he watches him go, "Leon…"

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_I couldn't believe it._

_I knew I was losing it again… but I actually lashed out on my only friend in the ship, the one person I trusted._

_Those Blue Cosmos bastards must've been laughing their butts off when they decided to give my next mission. They saw that I'd take the most despicable tasks for my daughter's sake like a dog, so they decided to try and kill two birds in one stone. Getting me to kill a man who had been a thorn on their since the beginning of the war, hopefully, also killing me before I became a problem. _

_My next target was, The leader of the Grey Demons, the Grimaldi Falcon, the Butcher Bird, Kenneth DiFalco._

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**A/N: **Hope you guys like this, please R&R and tell me what you think. The next chapter should be done by the end of next week.

-Watchman


	2. Standing under Heaven

**Disclaimer:** Ken DiFalco and the Grey Demons are from Solid Shark's Birds of a Feather/ Cry of the Falcon and are being used with permission. Richard Yamato Chung, his team, the Primus and Secundus Mobilesuits plus weapons/ equipment and the Equatorial Union Civil War setting are of Ominae's Rebellion, also being used with permission. Gundam Seed is the property of Bandai Games/ Animation. Characters from the Mobile Suit Gundam UC series are property of Bandai Games/ Animation. Leon and Kari Gaiman, and Lindsei Satou are mine. All other characters mentioned belong to their respective owners and creators.

**A/N:** Hey, people. Sorry, it took me longer than expected to finish this update, I wasn't satisfied with my first draft so I did the whole thing all over again. Hope you like this version better than I did with the first.

**Point Two: Standing under Heaven**

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_Several weeks later, the day Leon leaves the Pershing_

_We were still operating off Sembawang, supporting loyalist and OMNI troops making a relief operation out of the city. _

_In other words, we were covering a routed force while the replacement troops go in to get slaughtered. _

_We never talked much since what happened during that day, saying only what needed to be said. _

_Anyway, the operation was going on fairly smoothly. Since we were only supporting that day, his Dagger L was armed with the Launcher Strike and he fired the Agni from the back of my Raider Full Spec, all we had to was shoot at anything hostile. The groundwork was being done by an MS team that Leon was going to be embedded with for the DiFalco operation. _

_The team consisted of only three members, but the way they plow through the enemy, I can understand why they were picked to be his 'teammates'. _

_With them on the ground and the Earth Alliance Fleet backing us from behind, our last skirmish together ended as a milk run._

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**OMNI-Enforcer Spengler-class Pershing, on the Johore Straight**

When Sei got off her mobilesuit, Leon was already heading towards the hangar exit.

_You're not getting away from me that easily…_

With every intention to speak with her senior pilot, she goes after him.

"Leon!"

He was halfway to the locker room when he first hears Sei calling her name. He ignores her at first, continuing the walk to his destination. That was, until Sei grabbed his arm tight, making him stop.

"Are you deaf or something?-!" Sei snaps angrily at him. "Deaf as well as stupid?-!"

Leon turns to her with a furious glare but manages to keep his voice down, "Nice. Real nice… You got anymore insults to throw at me?"

"Oh, you want more?-!" Sei returns his glare.

The two aces refused to back down, pushing each other to breaking point, just to make the other's will to fold. The two of them had strong personal pride, something simple like saying sorry doesn't come easy from either of them.

"Do you think I like sticking neck out for Blue Cosmos?" Leon sneers, "After what they did to me in the last war?"

"Well, it seems like it." She snorts coldly, "You followed every order they give you like a nice, little errand boy, just hoping that they will give back your daughter. If only you knew how pathe-"

"Shut up!" Leon snaps, "You've got no idea what I've been through! Do you know how it feels to not able to hold your close you for a whole year and a half? Not being able to see her face, hear her voice or even hold her hand when she's scare? No, I didn't think so!"

"Then tell me," She yells back. "What don't I know that explains why you're risking you life so unnecessarily?"

"She's my daughter!" He counters, "Do I have put that through your thick skull?!"

"You don't know anything about what I'm feeling!" Leon continues, "You don't know how it's like to lose someone so close the way I did!"

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_I first met Leon in California, a couple of weeks before the Orb invasion. I was newly recruited into the mobile forces back then, he ended up being my instructor. _

_He taught me a lot of stuff he learned from experience in a mobilesuit in Panama, stuff you can never learn in the simulators. Which really helped, before then, I was flying an F-7D Spearhead like so many others who were drafted into the new branch of the armed forces. I was green as they can come when it came to mobilesuits. _

_I'm really glad I paid attention to him, plus he was good teacher because it really paid off when my first assignment came. _

_Most of my unit was wiped out by the time Kaguya was destroyed, what he had taught saved me. I was never proud of the title I gained, that first battle of mine in a mobilesuit is something I prefer not to talk about. _

_Orb was my home. And can never go back there, not after what I did. I was hurt inside for what took part, but thankful to be alive._

_I was really grateful and I looked forward to thanking him when I was to be under his command in the Victoria operation._

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**That last line had hurt Sei more than Leon could have ever imagined.**

She suddenly lost all her anger, it was instantly replaced by so much pain. I felt so bad she wanted to throw up. She looks at him in the face, looking shell shocked.

Leon noted this and loses his anger too, concern was now in control. "Sei…?"

She looks away towards the hall, refusing to let him see the tears forming in her eyes.

"You don't think I know what it's like?" She began after finding her voice again, "You're wrong. I know… I know that it feels like you've been punch in the gut when you first find out. In first few weeks, it's so hard to operate like you always do, your whole body hurt so bad that it's enough to make want to kill yourself. Sometimes you'd just want to lock away yourself somewhere, you feel that the only way you won't go totally insane is alcohol so that you'll hopefully forget everything."

"I lied when I said I broke up with my boyfriend," She clenches her fists. "He died in Yggdrasil." Sei bit her lip, forcing herself to continue. "He… He was just like you, he cared a lot… sometimes too much, to the point of being reckless. He trying to save what's left of his unit, told them to fall back while he held a GINN High maneuver off."

Stunned was an understatement that can describe what Leon felt, he was also in a total loss of words. He stood there and looked at what he wreaked with surprise and a small taint sense of shame.

He slowly walks to her, with original intention to place a hand on her shoulder, but as his hand reaches out, he changes his mind… …and wraps his arms around her waist.

He half-expected her pull free, but instead she hugs herself to hold his arms so he won't let go.

"Leon, please…" Sei began again, in an almost strangled voice. "Don't go… I promise make it up to you… just don't go…"

She tightens the hold on his arms, "I don't want to lose you too…"

Leon didn't know what to say, so he just shuts up, holding her close to him as he could.

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**Motor Pool, EUA Pasir Ris, Singapore, Equatorial Union**

Inside one particular EUMS-01 Primus that had the katana, "Gerbera Straight" on its side. Kevin DiFalco, the Grimaldi Falcon, quietly made adjustments to the OS to fit his specs. His eye quickly shifts to the different monitors, the rest of his face bore an expression that was so seemingly cold that some of his people joke it was chiseled that way.

He frowns as he hears the incoming transmissions coming from the front.

Yet again, the joint Chua government – OMNI Enforcer defenders had pushed the EURM force back in Sembawang back. It was already several weeks since most of the other loyalist positions have fallen, this was one of the last hold outs. There had several attempts to clear the city but each time they were repulsed, the defenders simply refused to give way, continuing to delay the attack on the Johore-Singapore Causeway Bridge. These areas of resistance made it possible for the Earth Alliance to counterattack from the rear if the assault were to take place. The stalemate up north was enough to put a serious damper on morale, it didn't help that an Alliance Special Forces team had snuck into the EURM HQ with one of them almost killing Richard Yamato Chung.

Falcon sighs. It was times like this he wished he brought Preybird with him, which unfortunately was still under repair. The Primus he had borrowed from the EURM will have to do, Tom Delaney had already reinforced the frame so as it can cope with his brand of piloting. And Junk Guildsman Lowe Guele was kind enough to give it a Tactical Arms packs similar to the one he had given Gai Murakumo's Astray Blue Frame Second L. He and Tom also fashioned a Gerbera Straight for him, made from the ore of the one he broke in Jachin Due and some from the back of Lowe's 150 meter version.

According to intelligence reports, the Alliance was rotating its units and its aces in and out of the area to maintain battle ready and well-rested defense force. The aces included, "The God of War" Ken Bederstadt, Jake Clinton, "The Sakura Burst" Rena Imelia, "The White Whale" Jane Houston, "The Jaeger of Orb" Lindsei Satou, and several pilots from 81st Autonomous Mobile Group better known to those in Section Nine as Phantom Pain.

But one name kept popping up, Leon Gaiman, "the Sandman."

Since his debut into the war several weeks ago, it didn't take long for him to gain notoriety among the EURM and the volunteers supporting them. He had the highest individual kills, eighty-two mobilesuits, seventy-one aircraft, one hundred-six military vehicles and twelve warships. He had single-handedly disabled a whole ZAFT unit and held off Sgt. Richard Yamato Chung whilst evacuating survivors of an ambushed unit. He made several raids deep into EURM-held Singapore by himself or with Lindsei Satou, harassing various bases and outposts.

Gaiman even got Falcon's attention by severely injuring Shiho Hahnenfuss during a previous raid. From what he gathered, she was beaten in close combat. Beating one of the Grey Demons in that category was no easy feat and took more than mere luck. Falcon wanted to see this man in action.

After studying the available records of his battles, he knew Gaiman used Sembawang's buildings and tight streets very effectively to his advantage. Not very many pilots could get used to fighting in a claustrophobic environment such the downtown of the city. He was so good at it, EURM soldiers called the downtown area, "Sandman's Graveyard" because he made most of his mobilesuit kills there.

From the video footages he had seen, Gaiman prefer fighting close range and was very also good at it, he guessed the man was familiar with martial arts as some of his moves reflected that. He also felt something as he the footage, he missed it at first but he gradually sensed a slight hesitation in each attack of the Schwert Gewehr or beamsaber…

"Boss," Delaney calls from the foot of the Primus. "Something you might want to know came up."

Falcon breaks away from his work and pops his head out of the cockpit, "What is it?"

"I think its better read it."

With that, he heads down, not bothering with the service platform stairs instead simply jumps straight down to the terra firma below.

"So, what do you have for me, Tom?"

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**OMNI-Enforcer Spengler-class Pershing, on port near Kuala Lumpur**

It was already dark by the time the Pershing was on dock. The ship was there to resupply and give its weary crew a rest after several weeks of constant action. It was also there so that Lieutenant Leon Gaiman could get off.

Inside his cabin, Leon places the last of his belongings into his duffel bag before slinging it over his shoulder. He gives his room one last look, making sure he didn't miss anything.

When he was done, he takes a deep breath, "Well… this is it…"

He steps of the cabin for the final time.

Gaiman walks through the dark and quiet halls, his foot steps echoed as he passed through.

It was 10 o'clock p.m., most of the crew was either asleep or has taken the night out. Well… almost everyone.

In the hall leading to gangway, Leon finds the person he would be waiting for him.

Sei was leaning beside the door, wearing an Alliance military uniform.

Her eyes open as she heard him come, Leon stops in the doorframe.

"So," She murmurs sadly, "I guess you're still going…"

He nods slowly, "Yeah…"

Leon makes a forlorn smile, "You know me… I'm too proud of myself to just call it quits."

Sei smiles too, "Yeah… You've always been such a pig-head."

They laugh together, both wishing in the inside this was just a bad bream.

"Well," Leon said with a thin smile. "I'll be seeing ya…"

He was about to walk out, but Sei gently grabs him by the arm. Leon looks to see what she wants…

…and find her pressing her lips against his.

Taken aback at first, Gaiman recovers, letting his bag slip from arm as he got his arms around her.

After they reluctantly pull away, the two look each other in the eye, Leon's golden browns against Sei's emerald greens.

"Leon," She whispers. "Try to stay alive, okay?"

He looks at her, smiling as best he could despite the circumstances. "Okay…"

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_The actual battle wasn't much of an engagement. All the diversionary force had to do was go in for a few minutes and pull out when the nuke was ready to go._

_I was part of a four unit mobile team that supported the Special Ops unit Leon led to capture the Victoria mass-driver. We did just that, along with stopping ZAFT personnel there attempt to destroy it._

_After the battle, I decided to pay him back for training me, so I asked him out for a drink. _

_Mr. Suave looks at me and raises an eyebrow goes on to say, "I have to warn you, I used to not sleep with the same woman twice."_

_(Chuckles) I was thinking, what's with this guy?-! Does he think I was a whore of something?_

_Well gave him a piece of my mind, along with a right fist. He caught it and that's when I found he had a very strong grip when I tried to pull away. Leon then smiled and said. "Congratulations, I prefer women with strong pride, I'll take that drink, if the offer's still available."_

_(Shakes head, laughing) Weird guy… He always has been…_

_But I loved him._

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**Command Center, OMNI Enforcer Contingent Camp, Pahang, Malaysia**

Leon walks into the camp's command center, wearing his Atlantic Federation Army Special Force field uniform complete the green beret.

Neo Roanoke looks up as he walked in, "Ah, glad that you've made it, Major Gaiman." The masked officer acknowledges him in his army rank.

He stood up, "Allow me to escort you to your living quarters until our departure for Singapore."

Gaiman eyes him, his face unmoved, he simply nods.

They move to another, smaller camp next to the main one. There, Leon quickly notes there were more watch towers and sentries posted. Along with security cameras placed several meters apart on the chain link fence that had barbwire on the top. There were also ST Kinetics Redback remote gun turrets inside the fence perimeter. Obviously, they didn't want anyone uninvited coming in. The place looked more like a small missile base than a camp.

**It didn't take long for Leon to be where he was to stay,**

After settling in Leon meets up with Neo again and they headed to the camp's mobilesuit bay.

"I'd like you to know," Neo said along the way. "That I'm not keen to what my higher ups are doing. Even I draw the line at the tactics their pulling."

The Sandman looks at him at the corner of his eye.

"Yet you still follow them, despite knowing what they're doing." He coldly murmurs, "How the hell you sleep at night with that mind?"

"If you want to know," Neo replies. "Not too well. Sometimes I wished I could just do what you did."

Leon wasn't convinced of his claim. "Well, why didn't you?"

"Unlike you, I am loyal to my country, I just happened to be assign to the 81st because of record."

"I see…" Leon murmurs, "Once, I had strong loyalty to the Federation too…"

**Despite the common story that the man was retired in Orb,**

The Blue Cosmos was sure that Ken DiFalco was with the EURM providing tactical support. Needless to say, they wanted him dead. That's what the team of mobilesuit pilots assembled in the camp's mobilesuit bay area was there for. There, several prototype and limited-production mobilesuits stood, waiting for their new pilots.

Leon made a quick note of everyone in the unit, he knew some of them. Orbital fleet pilots Lt. Jr. Yazan Gable, Ens. Dunkel Cooper and Ens. Ramsus Hasa. Like most Earth force MS pilots, they started off in mobile armors. Their first taste of mobilesuit combat was Victoria in the Earth Alliance diversionary force that attacked the base before the nuclear strike. From that quick skirmish, they quickly became skilled pilots and when you add that up to their rumored bloodthirsty desire to kill, you have a very dangerous trio.

Also, there were Navy SEAL Ensigns Robert Egan and Danny Fisk, old friends of Leon, they had been his teammates in a joint Ranger-Seal unit Leon led in Africa, the same team that stopped the destruction of the Victoria mass-driver.

Egan was very sharp and knew his tactics, equally comfortable in special operations on land and sea, this SEAL combat swimmer became the top trainer of the Navy. Smart, tough, and skilled in all areas of covert operations, and has cross-trained as a field surgeon and would serve well on any conceivable mission.

While Fisk was the most naturally gifted waterman in the Navy, he can hold his breath on the bottom of a pool for twelve minutes. A surfer, free diver and former lifeguard who grew up in the surf line of southern California, he could swim faster and farther on one breath than anyone in his unit. Fisk was also good in close quarter combat and night ops.

Both were good soldiers, but the problem was their lack of respect to higher military authority which is the major reason why they haven't advanced in rank.

Another former teammate and friend also there was Kazimiera Rakuzanka, 'Kazi' to her friends and family, or "Kamikazi" by her colleagues, although never to her face. Leon fell in-between the two categories and the only person brave enough to call her the latter. She was a former Eurasian Jagdkommando, and was part of Gaiman's team during the beginning of the war. Kazimiera was a survivor despite her unassuming appearance, she's tough as steel inside and outside. She's also a strong team player and an excellent shot. However, her one flaw is her sarcastic way of speaking but –thankfully– always reserves her sharpest barbs for the rich and powerful.

There another person he recognized but wasn't very happy to find was Lt. Jonas Pike. The man was cool as liquid nitrogen, nothing seemed to faze him much and on top of that, he's 'one helluva shot' as some would say. He and Leon never got along, the two's military philosophies differed so vastly that can you fit a whole Alliance fleet in it. They would've been a good team if they didn't have such problems. The two looked each other in the eye, staring each other down for moment before looking elsewhere, ignoring each other's existence.

Neo calls them all as he walks towards them, calling their attention.

"Gentlemen, it's good to see that all of you are now here. As you know, you all gathered here for one purpose, one mission, the chain of command who have hand-picked each you has full confidence and expects you will accomplish this successfully no matter the cost."

_Easy for you to say…_, Gaiman mutters mentally.

"You shall be given the best equipment the Alliance has to offer," the 81st Autonomous mobile group Captain continues. "Though you probably only have days to be accustomed to your new machines, I am sure that you will manage. Inside the cockpits, an envelope containing the latest details of the operation have been placed. You are _not_ allow show those files to anyone not part of this operation or bring those out of this complex, doing so will result in a court-martial. Do I make myself clear?"

Everyone –except Gaiman– snapped attention and saluted, "Sir, Yes sir!"

After Roanoke had assigned the men to their units, he left.

"Nice to see you're still the model soldier, Leo." Kazimiera quips, "You can get in trouble for not saluting him y'know."

Leon stares at her with a raised eyebrow, "I'm a major, he's a captain, _he_ should be saluting _me_ first."

Kazi gives out a hoarse laugh, throwing her arm over his shoulder. "I never thought I'd hear coming from _you_…"

The ranger grins, "I got infected by you, Kamikazi."

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_I got into the cockpit and checked out the details, it was pretty much the same as the one I got from Roanoke several weeks before. Not surprisingly though, the operation had been altered quite a bit. The one I had weeks ago stated that DiFalco was still outside of the Union and they were to intercept him either in the over the sea. But it turns out that DiFalco had already been in Singapore with the EURM for months now._

_The new operation was to take place in Nee Soon, Singapore. The CIA had purposely leaked a rumor of a tactical nuclear device was being transported from Johor Baharu with the supposed intention to use it in when an attack by the EURM was to break through, blowing up the bridge, along with taking out at least a couple square miles around it. _

_Judging from amount of intelligence effort and manpower being used for the operation, it was pretty obvious that the Alliance and Blue Cosmos were really desperate to get rid of the Butcher Bird. It also reflected in machines they had given us._

_Not only did we have some of the best mobilesuits the EA had, we're also to be supported by Roanoke and at least one full mobilesuit battalion, plus another as a reserve. _

_My side was pulling out all the stops just to get this one ex-ZAFT ace._

_The question was…_

_Could we pull it off?_

_Could I pull it off?_

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**For the next several days,**

The hand picked members of the unit trained in the simulators and in actual skirmishes with the EURM, getting accustomed to their new mobilesuits. They also went through the plan several times, going through the contingency plans that have been planned, no one wanted a repeat of the disastrous Spec-Ops operation that achieved minimal results at the cost of four highly skilled men.

The eight pilots were divided into two groups, Gaiman leading Egan, Fisk and Rakuzanka while Pike was in charge of Gable, Cooper and Hasa. Of the two teams, it was fairly obvious that Gaiman's would be a very effective unit, the group already knew each other and everyone knew their jobs. Pike's unit was doing not too bad, though he had a problem keeping his subordinates in line occasionally.

Leon also took the chance to get reacquainted to his old teammates, most especially Kazi, who he hasn't seen for almost two years. He was surprised to find that she was now married had two daughters back in Gdansk, Poland, she couldn't wait to get back after her tour of duty was over. Egan was planning to Orb after the fighting in the EU was settled and start over his life. As for Fisk, he was itching to go back to his hometown in California and catch some waves again.

Listening to his mates talking of their future plans gave Leon a lot more to think about aside from his daughter and himself, he had to make sure these people with him went home to their families and their futures.

He was tempted to share what was happening to him and his daughter, but decides against it, no need to worry them and cause them to lose their focus in the mission process. At least not yet.

The days came and went, and before they knew it, the operation was in affect.

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**Locker room, OMNI Enforcer 81****st**** Autonomous Mobile Group Camp, Pahang, Malaysia**

Military Intel's deep penetration agents had confirmed that DiFalco had taken the bait and was moving to the bridge that linked Singapore and Malaysia. The call that Leon had feared for days had finally reached his unit.

Gaiman sat on the bench as he ties the laces of his combat boots tight, he took a deep breath as he did so. He felt like a man about to be executed, there was no where to go but forward.

…To the chopping block.

Knowing when you may die was a terrible thing. When you look at a clock, you saw your life slowly slipping away with each tick. The only thing that kept Leon sane was a picture of his daughter, his teammates and the determination to keep a promise. With everything you've ever lived for on the line, pride and morals were non-issues.

If you looked into his eyes and you saw that there was no joy. He had spent the last few days getting himself ready, using what he learned from his training to put himself into an almost zombie type world. A world where he could take one's life with his bare hands without even flinching, be it straggling with wire, slipping a long needle into one's ear to skewer the brain or just snapping necks. He's done all that before, he had to.

And right now, Ken DiFalco had to die.

Leon was in a non-standard woodland camouflage uniform and a tactical vest, he pulls his sidearm, a USP45CT with a universal tactical flashlight, checking the .45 ACP clip then sliding it back in, before pulling the slide. After holstering it, he rests his elbows against his knees, burying his face in his hands.

"What… the hell got me into this…?" He asks to no one in particular. He voice echoes in the dark empty room.

Gaiman steps out of the locker room, He finds Rakuzanka, Egan and Fisk waiting for him outside.

They nods to him, he nods back.

This was it, zero hour had begun.

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**Nee Soon, Singapore, Equatorial Union**

There was no moon that night, just a vast sky of stars, a perfect night for one EURM soldier and his friend, looking through a telescope in Pasir Ris. The two were unaware of the battle that was about to rage in the city just north of their camp.

Mobilesuits thud on the downtown of Nee Soon, accompanied by several armored vehicles and trucks that carried EURM troops, keeping a sharp eye for the enemy, the EURM column moves steadily. Within the force was one customized Primus with a katana sheathed by its side.

Ken DiFalco was accompanying this force because it was heading to the same general direction as he was. The difference was the force's destination was Sembawang for yet another slog with the defenders there. His destination was Johor Baharu.

He wasn't alone, his old teammates from the Grey Demons, Dearka Elsman, Thomas Delaney and Leanne Eldridge, were with him, Tom and Leanne were in GAT-01D Long Daggers, Tom's had a Fortresta Mode on, while Dearka was in a GAT/A-01E2 Buster Dagger. Also with them were Gai Murakumo in his MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame in its Second L configuration, his partner Elijah Kiel in his custom ZGMF-1017 Ginn and the "Glittering cursed star J" Jean Carrey in his custom MBF-M1M1 Astray. Also with them in one of the armored personnel carriers were several members of EURM Special Naval Brigade commandos and Rick's fellow Secundus pilots.

The eyes of Ken's mobile scan the area left and right, falcon like, one hand on the hilt of the Gerbera Straight.

Dearka easily took note of this, "Feeling a little jumpy, Falcon?"

"A bit," Ken replies, looking at the buildings the flanked either side of the road. "So many places for the enemy to hide…"

"You should be used to it by now," his friend replies. "You've been fighting here for two months now."

"I guess I should've," Ken lifts his shoulders to shrug. "But I'm used to fighting in space, remember?"

"Right," Dearka snorts. "And you don't like planets, I almost forgot, silly me."

**A little distance away…**

"Captain, Incoming enemy force confirmed, Alpha target's mobilesuit has been detected."

Inside his GAT-04 Aile Windam hidden with camo netting, Capt. Neo Roanoke smiles, "Excellent, now we can finally put an end to the Butcher Bird."

"Lee," He pushes a dial in his radio. "How are the preparations going? Will we be ready by the time they enter the effective range?"

"It's ready now, sir," Lt. Comm. Ian Lee replies. "The CWDS can be initiated anytime the order is given."

"Good, Commander, very good. We'll give them another couple of minutes, I want as many of their mobile suits in range of the effect."

"Yes sir."

"**Look at 'em…"**

Ens. Ramsus Hasa grins gleefully at the sight of the EURM mobile column moving into the kill zone. "Like good little lambs to the slaughter."

"Yeah," Dunkel also smiles, excited. "This is gonna be fun…"

"Just looking at them makes me want to rip them apart right now…" Yazan chuckles as he felt the desire for battle running through his veins.

"Well you'll have to wait just a little more," Jonas Pike calls to him with his usual calm voice. "Wait till the CWDS is activate, them you'll all have all the mobilesuits you'll ever want to destroy."

"Copy," they all reply.

Pike sighs as get off the radio, shaking his head. "Maniacs…"

Their mobilesuit were also hidden amongst the ruined buildings.

Dunkel Cooper was using a GAT-706S Deep Forbidden, a mass-produced version Jane Houston's GAT-X255 Forbidden Blue, it had all the features of the prototype except for the Trans-phase armor.

Ramsus Hasa was armed with a GAT-X131 Calamity, a very powerful heavy artillery type mobilesuit.

Yazan Gable and Jonas Pike were both piloting GAT-X133 Sword Calamities, a close range version of the Calamity.

Their job was to attack the EURM, supporting the loyalist and OMNI forces that were to attack with them.

"**Alright," **

Leon breaks radio silence, "Here they come. Stay sharp, remember the sims and drills we did."

"Sir," His three subordinates call in unison.

His team was given GAT-SO2R N Dagger Ns. SO stands for "Special Operations," the first N is for "N-Jammer Canceller" and the second N is for "Ninja." These units was made for Spec-Ops spooks like them and was a very blatant violation of the -yet to be signed by the Equatorial Union- Junius Treaty for its mirage colloid and its N-jammer. They were excellent use when you want to go and out of a place without being detected in radar at all. Or to take out _Target Alpha_, their objective. Their units were identical, save for Gaiman's who had a Schwert Gewehr anti-ship sword on his unit's back.

He was about let go of the transmit button when Leon hesitates. With a sigh, he presses it again.

"Do me a favor guys," He calls. "Try your to stay alive out there."

There was no answer at first, largely because the three were perplexed by that last call.

"Roger that, sir." Kazimiera calls back first, "I have all the reason to, don't worry."

"Copy," Robert replies seconds after. "Frankly, I'm too young to die."

"And I got waves to surf." Danny adds, "You got it, man."

Leon smiles, "Good."

**The joint OMNI-Enforcer-Loyalist Equatorial Union taskforce waits patiently, waiting for the opportune moment.**

When finally…

"All right," Neo announces, "Lee, initiate all the CWDS units."

It started with just several mobilesuits, then, it began to spread. Mobilesuit after mobilesuit suddenly was pivoting around aimlessly, some seemed to looking up then looks down, others were stuttering uneasily as though the pilot had just began learning how to move a mobilesuit.

Inside one EURM mobilesuit cockpit, the pilot curses as his targeting systems went down, his mobilesuit began harder to control and had a delayed respond to his commands.

"W-What going on…?-!"

"**Okay!"**

Lt. Pike calls, "They've activated the CWDS, all units engage!"

"Alright!" Cooper's Deep Forbidden was the first to move, starting off things with a blast of his phonon maser high energy cannon instantly wiping out a Buster Dagger and a Primus.

Hasa follows lowering his two shoulder-mounted "Schlag" high-energy long-range beam cannons in place, "Eat this!" He fires taking out at least five suits and damaging several others.

"The fun starts now!" Gable charges into the column, pulling out both his beam boomerangs and using them as short swords cutting through several mobilesuits like a sickle cutting through rice stalks.

Pike silently activates his Scylla 580mm. canon, the shot catches several mobilesuits at once in a large pillar of death, vanishing into it.

**Ken curses as he sees the EURM force struggle to regain control of their mobilesuits,**

"I hate it when my bad feelings are right…" The flashes of gunfire and explosion just ahead of them added to his frustration.

He and his companions weren't suffering the same problem as badly since they had install EMP shielding and Counter-ECM devices into their suits, in case of the alliance uses attacks of that nature.

"Is this what I think it is? The thing that Truman guy attack us with just before we met the Odin?" Dearka calls hinting of a very similar scenario during the Bloody Valentine war.

"Seeing that we can still use our radios." Ken mutters. "This is not this not the Dead Zone I remember."

"Its Dead Zone all right, Boss, but it's a little different though. The range is only about two square miles but it seems to be emitting a constant pulse." Tom calls, "Turning off auto-targeting should solve the control problem. It's going to be harder to aim for naturals though."

"Pass that info to the rest of force," Ken orders. "And tell them to forget firing at long range with beam rifles, with this ECM on, it's just a waste of energy. Shoot them when they're close or use close range weapons. The rest of you fan out, cover the force while they get some type of resistance going."

"You got it, Falcon." Dearka moves to where the action was. "Let's go guys!"

"You heard the man!" Tim Wallace, who was left in charge of their unit until Rick's return, calls to the other Secundus pilots. "Move out!"

"Yeah!" The Secundus units move in unison.

Gai raises an eyebrow hearing this and pulls out his beamrifle, "Whatever you say, DiFalco."

The Blue Frame moves out, "C'mon Elijah. Let's go."

"Right," Elijah's Ginn follows.

"I'll be seeing you later then," Jean also moves. "Hopefully."

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**Jonas Pike and his men were literally tearing through yet another EURM unit**

Hasa fires his "Todesblock" bazooka repeatedly whilst laughing like a maniac, holding off a whole EURM column. He walks slowly to them despite the shells, missiles and beams flying toward him, sidestepping when he really needs to. And while his enemies' shots came close, his almost always hit their mark as one EURM unit get destroy for every two shots.

Pike's GAT prototype was effortlessly taking out the EURM's mass-produced models, using the anti-ship sword or boomerang to take out individual unit and the Scylla for large masses.

Cooper in the Deep Forbidden stabs his trident into a Strike Dagger before throwing the mobilesuit at several other EURM mobilesuits, as it hits them, Cooper fires his phonon maser high energy canon.

He snorts as the mobilesuits blew up, "These guys are jokes!"

Yazan charges his Sword Calamity through a EURM forces Schwert Gewehr in his hands, taking out a Primus, a Buster Dagger and two Duel Daggers.

"C'mon!" He yells, continuing to swing the anti-ship sword, "At least one of you should put a dent on me! If you dare at least!"

With that, he opens his chest to fire the Scylla, obliterating several more mobilesuits.

"**I hope you really mean that,"**

Gai Murakumo answers as the Blue Frame jumps off a building with a beam saber in hand. "Because I'm about give you more than a dent!"

Yazan instinctively parries Gai initial attack with his Schwert Gewehr, causing a bright spark on impact.

As they lock blades with each other, the Earth forces pilot notes the Serpent Tail emblem on chest with the number "1" incorporated on it.

Yazan smiles, "So… you're that Murakumo guy… you're supposed to be real good."

"That's why I'm doing well in my business," Murakumo replies casually.

"I see, well…" He pushes the Blue Frame from the lock and charges at him, "Don't disappoint me!"

**Elijah, Tim and Hamid Abbas go against Cooper's Deep Forbidden.**

Knowing that they can't actually hurt it with the "Geschmeidig Panzer" armor on so they result to pressuring the Deep Forbidden pilot on the defensive by attack him in different angle forcing him to use the armor incessantly. Unfortunately Cooper knew what they were trying to do, using his skill in dodging and evading attacks more than energy shield.

"I'm not like that stupid moron in the original Forbidden in the Bloody Valentine war!" He fires his phonon maser cannon at Tim.

"Whoa!" Tim has his Secundus dive to one side for cover behind a line of two story houses, as he did so he fires his FERFRANS MKR-1 beam assault rifle several times. Cooper narrowly dodges this, the shot hit a nearby building.

"You'll pay for that!" He snarls as he goes after him with his trident.

"Are you forgetting us?" Hamid calls as his Secundus fires a rocket from its PT Pindad 100 mm PM1 ground rocket launcher and Elijah fires his MMI-M8A3 76mm machinegun at him.

Cooper clicks his tongue and activates the "Geschmeidig Panzer", "Damn pests…"

**At the same time, Jean Carrey was going up against Jonas Pike.**

"Do you think that mass-produced model of your can stand up against mine, rebel?" Pike say seeing that his enemy was going at him alone.

Jean doesn't reply, he pitches the Custom Astray to one side as the Sword Calamity fire it's Scylla, avoiding the large blast entirely, then fires off his Type-71 beamrifle.

Pike has his unit duck, at the same time throw a Midas Messer boomerang. Carrey lets go of his shield and pulls out a Type 70 beamsaber, swatting the throwing weapon out of the air.

"Hmm…" Pike raises an eyebrow as Jean's Astray barrels down toward him, "Perhaps I was a little overconfident…"

**"You're going down!" **

Dearka yells as his Buster Dagger connect the 350 mm gun launcher and 94 mm high-energy rifle to form the anti-armor shotgun. He fires it at Hasa's Calamity as it stood on top of an apartment building, forcing the prototype to dodge. The shots instead hit and destroy two OMNI GAT-01A1 105 Aile Daggers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Ha! You missed, moron!" Hasa sneers as his unit land on another building top he aims his two shoulder mounted weapons and fires several barrages.

Dearka curses, ducking behind a building to avoid the shots, he gets link with Secundus pilot Avir Olmert. "Let's shoot altogether, he can't get all of us right?"

The ex-ZAFT ace shrugs "Let's give it a try…"

"You just got lucky!" He retorts at Hasa's last statement and he fires another shot, this time with the hyper impulse beam sniper rifle. Stepping out behind the opposite building, Luis Mendez fires his rocket launcher while Avir Olmert and Davan Sahril covering him with their beam assault rifles.

"Shit!" Hasa yells as he gets struck a couple of times by the beam fire, the rocket had hit the building wall just below him causing it to crumble making him lose his balance. His Calamity falls face first on the concrete street below.

"I told you," Dearka chuckles as saw the fall. "And you just went down."

As the Calamity got back up, Hasa's eyes narrow dangerously. "This time… I'm gonna rip your face off!"

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**Leon watches as the mobile suit column scatters through his invisible unit's infrared scanner,**

Taking shelter wherever they could find it and doing its best to fight back, the Counter Weapon Digital Scrambler or CWDS was working like a charm. He looks at his watch, checking for the time. The strike should probably be in orbiting station in several minutes. And when the time came, only then would he activate his designator. Leon scans the enemy, looking for the specific he was after.

It didn't take long for him to catch sight of DiFalco's Primus and the Gerbera Straight on its side.

His eyebrows raise, "That sword… So you are here…"

Gaiman knew the weapon very well, he has seen the Preybird wield it during the battle of Orb.

_DiFalco…_ He shook his head as his breathing and heart beat were increasing pace.

"Take your time, Leo, take your time. Chill…" He tries to calm himself, "You've got do this right…"

"Wait for the air strike. He's just in a Primus, not the Preybird… so you may just have a chance…"

**The minutes ticked by, **

The EURM units began to regain some ground after their initial performance, slowly pushing off the ambush. The lone Alliance N Dagger N continued to watch. The rain had begins to pour steadily turning into a torrent, it started to sound like a roaring river.

For Gaiman, the wait was excruciating, seeing his target quarry so close. It tempting just to pull the trigger and hope his "Schildgewehr" offensive shield system's 70mm. beamgun will hit its mark.

But he was smarter than that, he knew by it experience with Kira Yamato in the Mendel conflict. He manages to get close to him and gambled a shot. It was swift and sudden, but the Freedom's pilot dodged it easily and shot out all his limbs. He constantly looks into his watch, waiting the next run.

Finally, the time came as the last seconds ticked away. He takes a deep breath and gets ready to activate the designator…

**Way above Nee Soon, **

Several high altitude B-8 Drake stealth bombers drop several general purpose and fragmentation smart munitions. They were guided to their targets with the help of Gaiman's designator.

"We've got incoming!" Tom yells, seconds later a salvo of explosives began rearranging the landscape.

A frag airbursts or explodes in mid air in front of a EURM Strike Dagger, its light armor and frame was easily shredded to pieces. That same blast also takes out a Primus and a Long Dagger. The HE bombs obliterated anything that was caught in their blast radius.

Low flying fighter aircraft quickly joined the fray, A-22 Bulldog attack planes and F-7E Super Spearheads peppered the ground forces with 75mm. rounds and missiles.

"Scatter!" Ken orders, the EURM groups nearby break formation. He grits his teeth looking around for anything that hinted an enemy unit. He knew that someone had to be guiding those planes or the Alliance Airforce wouldn't risk bombing so close to their own men. The former ZAFT ace curses quietly, "Where are you scoping us from…"

His question was quickly answered a green beam blast cuts through a Buster Dagger's cockpit several meters from him.

Ken turn to the direction of the blast, he spots N Dagger N standing on top of a nearby hotel building, decloaked.

**Inside the N Dagger N**

Leon breaks radio silence and switches to an Alliance general frequency, "Sandman to Command, I've confirmed. Bravo-Bravo-Tango-Zulu has been sighted. Repeat, Bravo-Bravo-Tango-Zulu has been sighted."

Bravo-Bravo-Tango-Zulu was the set code for 'Butcher Bird of True ZAFT'. With that done he redials his radio, "Sandman to Team, let's move out. Make sure no one assists, leave the Grimaldi Falcon to me."

"Roger."

The other stealth mobilesuits move out still in Mirage Colloid, making sure no one interfered their unit leader's task. They engage the Tom and Leanne's Long Daggers and EURM mobilesuits that happen to be close by

Gaiman's N Dagger N jumps off the building using his unit's grappling wires to slow down his descent. He lands on the street less than a hundred yards of Ken's Primus.

"Ken DiFalco, former Commander of the True ZAFT forces…" Leon murmurs through the radio. "I am here to put you to sleep."

Ken's eye narrows, "Leon Gaiman…"

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_There he was… standing right in front me. _

_The last time I actually saw him, he was inside the Preybird ripping ZAFT's and my side's force apart in Jachin Due. Not the type of man you'd to face at any situation, period. But there we are, with being forced to fight and hopefully kill him. _

_I knew this man was arguably the best military tactician and strategist there was. I've read his book, 'Lessons of War', its good read, very useful when you're in the armed forces anywhere. _

_I knew we the Earth Alliance and the __O__ppose__M__ilitancy and __N__eutralize__I__nvasion Enforcer had __wronged him horribly when we destroy Junius Seven, the PLANT colony he once lived in, what was once his home. _

_I also knew he was a true patriot to his country even if it meant betraying his military and sometimes losing the ones he loved. _

_Something I never had the courage to do. _

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**While Fisk dealt with the EURM mobilesuits,**

Kazi moves towards the Leanne's Long Dagger. She notes something in her sensors and smirks, quickly turning around, she fires a volley from her "Schildgewehr" offensive shield system. Her beam blasts make contact with the beam blasts of another, the two simultaneously vanish into thin air in small explosions.

"Not bad…" Someone said on her radio. "Usually, Earth forces pilots would have been too slow to see someone react in time to get out of the way of shot like that. Yet you were able to cancel of my beam shots."

"Cheap shots aren't fitting for your lot," She replies.

"Hmm… true… what about this then?" Kazimiera sees Tom's Long Dagger, charging at her with its ES01 beam saber on hand.

He draws out the G07D+ anti-armor sword from the N Dagger N's left side and tried to stab him, but misses

"Damn!"the N Dagger N pilot grunts, using its anti-beam shield in time to block the attack.

With that, Kazi pushes the Long Dagger then goes at him again with a tackle causing Tom to lose his balance.

"Take this!" Leanne yells, she uses her beamrifle to shoot at Robert. Seeing the incoming projectiles, he nimbly dodges it after using the N Dagger N's grappling wires at the side of a building to help him avoid being hit.

"Miss me, sweetie!" Egan taunts, landing back on the ground.

The Long Dagger stows away its rifle then it lunges at him with an ES01 beam sabers on either hand.

"Whoa!" Egan faints back to avoid her first strikes, he then prepared his shield up to block any incoming beam saber attacks.

"My name's Leanne Eldridge, you jerk!"the Long Dagger's pilot snarls, using the ES01 beam saber on its left hand to slash at him. "And don't you forget it!"

"Of course not, honey!"He blocks her beam saber swipes.

When Leanne raises her right ES01 beam saber upward to score a vertical swipe, Robert uses his offensive shield to block a hit from the left beam saber before performing a knee attack on the Long Dagger's cockpit area, causing it to fall down on its back.

Standing near Leanne's Long Dagger, he was about to deliver the final blow by stabbing it with his anti-armor sword when he gets attack by Tom's Long Dagger, firing its Igelstellung 75mm. CIWS at him, and Ken's Primus, the Gerbera Straight in hand.

Leon closes his eyes for a moment, _So it truly begins…_

He moves to intercept and takes the brunt of blocking vertical slash coming from the Primus' katana with the offensive shield as Robert weaves left and right to dodge the 75mm. bullets.

Leon blocks the next incoming attack with the Schwert Gewehr anti-ship sword. From behind the Primus, Leon sees Tom's Long Dagger helping Leanne's stand up.

"I have to admit, you're good…" The voice of man Leon knew as Ken DiFalco murmurs through the radio. "To have actually beaten one of my Demons on our field of expertise. Judging from your movements, you're probably trained in a combative art for quite a while…"

"I have, several throughout the years…" He replies as he faints back and uses his "Schildgewehr" offensive shield to fire at the Primus, but the shots were easily deflected by several swipes of the Anti-beam properties of the Gerbera Straight. "Judging from the moves of your Demons and you, you've been practicing just as well…"

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_That was the first time I've talked to him… It was surreal, I just declared several minutes ago that I was going to kill him, and there we were talking casually and trying to kill each other at the same time. _

_(Chuckles, shaking head)_

_If he had the Preybird, he'd probably have roasted me by then. I guess the only reason I wasn't six feet under yet was, I was using a nuclear suit while he's using a modified mass-produced model. But still, I was having a hard time getting an advantage on him when it came to fighting._

_And the more we talked out there, the more I liked him. I fact, I dropped Grimaldi Falcon and Butcher Bird pretty quick and started calling him Falcon. What made even weirder was, he started calling me Leon. _

_I started wishing I didn't have to fight the guy…_

_I started wishing I didn't have to kill him…_

_But I had to._

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**Eyeing his opponent,**

Leon charges forward using his thrusters for additional speed and grabs the anti-ship sword by the blade. He swings the hilt at the Primus' head, Ken block accordingly raises the katana over his head. Then with surprising speed, Leon pulls back and then jabs the sword's pommel into the cockpit. Gritting his teeth, Ken forces himself to let his Primus move a few steps backward.

"An opening!" Leon, out of desperation, jabs the anti-ship sword's pommel again this time at Primus' chest. "Now to..."

He was about plunge the length the Schwert Gewehr through Ken's Primus, but Ken uses his verniers and the Tactical Arm pack's thruster to weave back.

_Damn…! _Leon hastily raises his right arm to fire the offensive shield's 70mm. beamgun before he saw Ken's mobile suit charge at him from the air, dodge his beam shots and try to hack his weapon with its beam saber he held on his left and attack the body with the Gerbera Straight in right. Leon sidestepped to dodge the beam slash and used the anti-ship sword to parry the katana.

_Well done. _Ken eyes the N Dagger N carefully. _There's no doubt. He uses the same sword style as me. _

"Shit!" Leon curses loudly as he jumps back away.

"Nice recovery!" Ken swipes at Leon's N Dagger N with the beam saber. "Usually someone would have been dead if he reacted too late. But it seems you were able to find out where I was going to attack."

As the Primus' saber descends on him, Gaiman raises the Schwert Gewehr blade over him. As the saber blade struck, he lets the point end of the sword to slant down sharply, forcing the saber to go to the side instead of through him. He then counters with a mighty right hand swing of the anti-ship sword.

"I guess I have a sixth sense for things like that!" Leon tries to force the blade through the mobilesuit's torso but Ken quickly blocks it and counters with his own slash. Likewise, Leon blocks it and counters again.

They were locked in that same pattern for several few minutes, to Tom and Leanne's amazement as they continued to fight their own opponents.

"Unbelievable…" Tom Delaney murmurs. "Does that guy have the same sense as the Boss?"

"Tom," Leanne establishes communication with him. "You think we should help?"

"I don't know." Tom replies. "I'm just as confused as you are."

Ken dodging every attack that Leon tried to do before blocking the last one with his Hindalco anti-beam shield before attempting to strike the N Dagger N' right arm with the beam saber.

Leon grabs the blade of his sword as he raises it up, he catches the saber blade with Schwert Gewehr's sword guard and lower part of the blade. With one smooth twist, the N Dagger N forces the saber out of the Primus' hand. The weapon flies off to the distance, deactivating as it lands somewhere in the dark.

Simultaneously, Leon slams his suit's elbow on to the Primus' face, making it back away. He lets out a loud cry as charges at him ready to make a mighty swing, but evades the potential fatal attack by boosting upwards.

"Gaiman, care to explain why you're even trying to kill me?" Ken fires the Primus' Floro 40 mm MK-1 multibarrel CIWS at Leon after getting airborne before firing the FERFRANS 60 mm ML-1 beam rifle at him. "You don't strike me as the Anti-Coordinator type."

Leon curses, watching Ken lands his Primus near him, raising his katana to strike.He parries the move with his anti-ship sword, predicting its direction of the attack.

"Rick told me what you said to him during his brief encounter with you," Falcon continues, "The reason you're still fighting for the Alliance is because they have something important to you?"

Leon clashed blades with him after Ken blocked his attempt to strike him, the two then engage in another blade clash.

"Yeah, they have." Leon gritted his teeth, "And the only way I'm getting her back, is to kill you!"

The Atlantic Federation Green Beret budges Schwert Gewehr to strike Ken. But his opponent had kept his guard up and the Gerbera Straight meets the Schwert Gewehr head on. The force of the impact causes both mobilesuits to momentarily lose balance, so both mobilesuits faint back with the thrusters.

The two units stood several hundred yards apart, staring each other down.

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**"I see…"**

Ken replies simply. "So be it."

The Primus sheathes the katana, and assumes a swordsman's drawing stance.

Surprised at first, Leon quickly realizes what he wanted and smirks. "So… you've noticed it eh?"

"It was hardly hidden," the young man snorts. "Besides, I can recognise the school of swordsmanship my master taught me."

Leon's N Dagger N also assumes a stance, holding the anti-ship sword with both hands, the hilt forward, close to the ground.

"Our souls," Leon murmurs, tightening the grips of his mobilesuit's hands.

"Hard yet firm."

"Our power," Ken replies, doing the same.

"Tearing the mountains."

"Our swords," The N Dagger N begins to move, gaining speed at each step. The Schwert Gewehr grinds through the ground, causing sparks.

"Splitting the water."

"Our names," The Primus also breaks into a run, the Gerbera Straight came out in s smooth motion.

"Reaching the villa."

As they about to make contact they finish the duelist's creed together.

"Only one among us can stand under heaven!"

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**A/N:** Gaiman had some interesting moves with the anti-ship sword eh? I based those moves on actual two handed sword techniques developed and used in the middle ages. Despite their looks and what movies portray them to be, two-handed swords are used with surprisingly finesse and agility than you think. I realize fairly early on that the only way I can make be Leon, a natural, to be equal to Ken plausibly was Leon had to be more knowledgeable and experienced, hence the reason I made him over 30 years old. Also, he's got a few tricks up his sleeve.

Robert Egan and Danny Fisk is from nFUSION Games' Deadly Dozen. Kazimiera "Kazi/Kamikazi" Rakuzanka is a character from Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 series and Red Storm.

Well the next chapter's going to take a while, since it's the last chapter and because I'm going to give it the best bang possible. One way or the other she'll probably be done the beginning or middle of November. And then after that, I'll be making a CotF sidestory, hopefully I'll get solid's permission for that.


	3. A New Day

**Disclaimer:** Ken DiFalco and the Grey Demons are from Solid Shark's Birds of a Feather/ Cry of the Falcon and are being used with permission. Richard Yamato Chung, his team, the Primus and Secundus Mobilesuits plus weapons/equipment and the Equatorial Union Civil War setting are of Ominae's Rebellion, also being used with permission. Gundam Seed is the property of Bandai Games/ Animation. Characters from the Mobile Suit Gundam UC series are property of Bandai Games/ Animation. Robert Egan and Danny Fisk is from nFUSION Games' Deadly Dozen. Kazimiera "Kazi/Kamikazi" Rakuzanka is a character from Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 series and Red Storm. Leon and Kari Gaiman, and Lindsei Satou are mine. All other characters mentioned belong to their respective owners and creators

---

**A/N:** Well here we are, the last chapter. I'd like to thank Solid and Ominae again for letting me use their material, it been an interesting ride and it was great break from my own stuff. I'd also like to thank WildGoose01 for inspiration I got reading his fic, **Beware the left eye**.

**Point Three: A New Day**

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_"The soldier above all others pray for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."_

_- General Douglas MacArthur_

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_You had a lot of time to yourself while you piloting a mobilesuit, two to three hours in a relatively dark, small chamber called a cockpit all by yourself. Sure, you could always call up someone through the radio but when it comes to it, you're alone that mobilesuit._

_So… What would you think about, man?_

_When one of your friends got blown away. When he died on you. You try to make some sense out of it, to come to terms with it at a new level. Not at the old level where you exist with him. Now you have to exist without him._

_Why? Wherefores? What does it mean?_

_My analysis back then of what was going on was pretty unsophisticated. I was ignorant about life in general. At time, I was trying to put it in a mystical-theological perspective. _

_Although I was starting to reject god, I was still thinking, "Well, there is a God and he must want it to be this way."_

_It was simplistic and naïve, but it was still painful._

_The hardest thing to accept is that it's for real and forever. It was permanent. _

_I'd been to funerals in my time. I'd been an altar boy and served at funerals. I had family friends and relatives that had died and I've been to funeral parlors and seen dead people. But the guys I saw dying were really young, half my age from what I can tell. When they die, it was shocking, so rude. _

_The concept of permanency just isn't for somebody eighteen years old. Ask someone that age and they'll say, "I'm never going to die. I won't get old." _

_I was once a healthy young man in the Equatorial Union Marine Corps, then the Atlantic Federation Rangers, then finally the Special Forces. You just don't think about death or anything like that. You felt you could kick the world's ass. Then you see it happen and it's hard to come to grips with._

_Put it out of your mind. You can't dwell on it, yet you do think about it. It comes and goes. I'd say to myself, "I won't think about it tonight. I don't want to think about that. It's too fucking spooky."_

_But you're so tired, your mind is weak. When death comes into your head, you don't have the strength to push it aside. _

_You're just so damn tired. Nineteen year old bodies with thirty-five year old minds, that was twice their age._

_And there I was, my body finally catching up with my mind and reflecting what a young motherfucker I really was. I felt so much older and tired than I had the right to be within my physical frame._

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**In a restaurant somewhere in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Equatorial Union**

Lindsei Satou's eyes were open wide as they could possibly be, the color of her skin was pale and inside she almost felt she had been hit in the gut.

In front of her, across the table, a woman with golden brown eyes and long, wavy, ash brown hair calmly sat. She wore a lavender dress suit, a black sweatshirt under the jacket and white silk shawl.

This was Lia Gaiman, Leon's younger sister.

"Are you sure about what you're saying here…?" Sei asks.

At first, Lia simply stared at her. A TV behind the counter was in a news channel, the weather forecaster was predicting sudden rainstorms that may occur in Singapore and the southern Indochina area.

Several moments later she spoke. "And what would have been the point of using my influence in the Equatorial Union military to get to come here?"

The younger woman looked down toward her half-finished cup of coffee, "I see… I'm sorry…"

Lia shook her head, "It's alright. By the way, have you left anything important in the Pershing? I'll arrange my agents to retrieve them…"

Sei shakes her head, patting a small backpack next to her. "All that matters to me is right here… I never go anywhere without them."

Lia nods approvingly, standing up and leaving some change for the waitress. "Then it's time for you and I to disappear."

The younger woman nods, slinging her back on one shoulder.

"Lia…" She says as the two of them head outside.

She looks at the corner of her eye, "Yes?"

"You're worried about your brother too, right?"

Lia smiles reassuringly, "Of course I am, but its Leon, odds are he'll be fine."

Sei nods, mentally wishing she was just as positive. But, the thought of Leon fighting the Butcher Bird of ZAFT frightened her.

_Leon… _

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**Nee Soon, Singapore, Equatorial Union**

What had been a clear night sky half an hour ago, was now largely covered in storm clouds. The rain was pouring hard, lightning flashed in the distance as the thunder and clouds rolled through, rivaling the beam flashes and explosions in North Singapore.

The street lights that used to illuminate the city were out. Visibility to those on foot was limited to less than several meters, mobilesuit pilots had to rely on their sensors to find their enemies and friends. Someone tried to improve things by shooting up illumination flares, but the storm was too strong, the flares hardly gave any light.

The Counter Weapons Digital Scrambler or CWDS electronic counter measure made that task for the EURM much harder as it hampered their sensors. The OMNI-Enforcer taskforce mobilesuits had the proper counter measures for it and are unaffected. The battle for Nee Soon was about to get much uglier.

Navy Ensign Danny Fisk was breathing fast, the rain sliding down its sides. He lets out a loud cry and charges at a pair of Duel Daggers. Both daggers had beam rifle out and fire, Danny fires the grappling anchors in his hands at nearby buildings and lifts his unit over their heads. As he was airborne, he fires a grappling wire and takes one of the beamrifles. He fires the rifle and his "Schildgewehr" offensive shield's gun through their backs, taking out the cockpits from behind.

As he lands, Fisk has his N Dagger N activate his Mirage Colloid and continues firing both weapons. The rain deflecting off his mobilesuit hinted his position, but at least he was still hard to see.

**Nearby, **

Navy ensign Robert Egan and army captain Kazimiera Rakuzanka continued to engage Leanne Eldridge and Tom Delaney.

Leanne blocks the incoming shots with her anti-beam coated shield, while Tom fires his beamrifle and shoulder canon. Kazi and Robert split up to dodge the counter.

Kazi uses her grappling wire to cling on to the side of a building as she fires a grappling wire. She snatches away one of Tom's beamsabers, activating it once it reaches her hand. "Hope you don't mind me borrowing this."

At the same time, Robert raises his Hakenfaust grapple lock as he activates Mirage Colloid.

"Leanne, heads up!" Tom yells as both demons rose up their shields, he catches Kazi's saber attack while Leanne blocks the beam shot.

After Tom blocks her initial attack, Kazi swings her right fist at Tom's shield, forcefully enough to make lose his balance.

"Game over," The N Dagger N then goes in for the kill with the beamsaber.

"Not yet!" Tom quickly recovers her footing, raising his shield and absorbs the brunt of Kazi's attack, pushing the weapon aside and swings his own saber and firing the CIWS at the same time.

Kazi dodges the double attack with a quick sidestep, countering with the beamsaber and long anti-armor sword.

Both of them jump backwards to give themselves time to a rest.

"You're pretty good, boy." Kazi huffed.

"You're none too shabby yourself," Tom replies, equally out of breath.

Leanne squint her eyes as she concentrates on the cloaked N Dagger N's silhouette formed by the rain. She sees it go over her. _He's probably using the grappling wire…_

"Oh no you don't!" She turns around, swinging a beamsaber. Sure enough, enough her beam saber meets Egan's long anti-armor sword. Egan tries to snake his short sword for a stab but is deflected by the Long Dagger's shield.

"Not bad…" Robert murmurs, as they lock together. "You're pretty good."

"I should be," Leanne answers back. "Ken never takes in weaklings into the Grey Demons!"

She pushes him back, lets go of her shield and pulls out the second saber, then goes after Egan.

The N Dagger N blocks the attack with his offensive shield, "Good for you, but don't think I'm easy pickings either!"

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**Just outside Nee Soon, **

One M1 Astray and a GINN stood, their armor was painted with a jungle camouflage pattern.

"Sounds like there's trouble." Kurz Weber, inside his GINN murmurs, listening to the frequencies.

Karl Norman Hathcock II lowers a visor over his unit's main optical cameras, it had a special camera, one specifically made for his area of expertise. "Looks that way…"

The two were about to head back to Pasir Ris after spending the week harassing enemy ships offshore on the northern coast under the orders of their boss, Section Nine's "Major", when they heard calls coming from Nee Soon.

"It's a full-house," Hathcock says as he lifts the sniping aid back to its storage position. "I can't see much of it, but it's definitely a full-blown engagement."

Kurz nods, "Let's go then." He has his GINN pull out its beam sniper rifle and moved out.

Hathcock's MBF-M1 M1 Astray Sniper Custom pulls out its rifle and also moves out.

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_57CE, I graduated from high school._

_Not wanting to be like everyone else, I didn't bother with college, I decided to go straight into enlisting into the country's Marine Corps. My dad had a fit the first time he found out._

_We were a rich, well-off bunch, he could've easily pulled some strings to make look like I already did my mandatory two years in National Service. He wanted me to go to college to become a lawyer or doctor or something. I never really got along with him much then, I didn't give a damn what he thought. _

_He hardly knew what I did for a living before then, at least my mother had some inkling of it. _

_Mom on the other hand was proud of me, glad that I wasn't like the other rich kids in our neighborhood, high and mighty punks who had paid-underlings do their dirty work. Besides, she always wanted to see me in uniform. (Laughs)_

_She gave me her blessings and sent me off._

_I was right at home in boot camp, 'took all the shit the Sarge could throw at me and surviving my thirteen weeks of hell called 'basic training.'_

_Life was so much easier back then._

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**Not too far away**

The sound of impact the Schwert Gewehr and the Gerbera Straight made was a loud, grinding echo that traveled through the streets. The two weapons sparked as the blades grinded together, water ran down the length of both swords before dripping at the hilt.

Leon's GAT-SO2R N Dagger N and Ken's EUMS-01 Primus quickly pull away from each other.

The N Dagger N pilot at speed pulls out his short anti-armor sword and blocked the incoming ES01 beam saber from Ken's Primus fitted with a Tactical Arms Pack after it jumps forward to attack.

"Nice try!" Leon shouts as he lets go of his Schwert Gewehr and pull out the longer anti-armor sword. "Now it's my turn!"

The N Dagger N starts off with a scissors formation attack that locks the beam saber, Leon kicks the Primus in the cockpit, making stagger backwards. He then goes for a dual vertical slash, but Ken blocks the attack with Gerbera Straight before countering with the remaining beam saber.

Leon sidesteps the defensive thrust, he returns the favor with a diagonal slash but not before Ken boost sideway to avoid all together.

"Looks like I slightly underestimated you." Ken murmurs from his Primus cockpit. "You're able to read my moves. You're no run of the mill opponent."

"I wouldn't be alive if was, now won't I, Falcon?" Leon smirks, "_True strength is in the mind, not the body._"

"Lesson Thirty-seven," Ken lunges at Leon's N Dagger N but he sidesteps. "I see you've read it, not too surprising, though I thought the Alliance banned 'Lessons of war'."

"They did," Leon calls, clashing his G07D+ anti-armor swords against Ken's katana and beamsaber. "But there's still a lot of them around if you know where to look."

"I see," Ken draws out beamsabers launches toward him. "Now let's see how much you've learned, Gaiman!"

Gaiman was suddenly pushed into the defensive. Using his "Schildgewehr" offensive shield to defend him, Leon could only perform jabs and lunges. He did vertical and horizontal slashes were possible only when he was near enough, but Ken could simply jump a short distance away from him to avoid it.

Leon makes a vertical sword swing when Ken counters it by crossing his dual ES01 beam sabers to block his Primus's chest area.

"Because, I have every intention to go back home alive, Leon! Murrue wouldn't be happy if I died."

Leon arcs an eyebrow, "Murrue? As in Murrue Ramius? The Captain of the Archangel?"

"You know her?" Ken forces the sword away.

"Only from the info I get in my old briefings and what I learn in the news," The N Dagger N jumps backwards, sheathing both anti-armor swords. It then fires a grappling wire to grab the Schwert Gewehr in the ground as reel it back to him.

Gaiman lock assumes a thrusting sword middle stance, the blade level of the mobilesuit's head. "So the rumors are true… when're you guys getting hitched?"

Ken frowns, "Not anytime too soon that's for sure."

"I see." Leon chuckles, "Well, take your time. You never know when you'll get second thoughts on the whole thing."

"… Second thoughts?" Ken's scowl gets deeper, bewildered. "Now wait a minute…"

"Trust me," The N Dagger N dashes forward, making several slashes before making an elbow strike that contact to the Primus' face. "Give it a nice_long_ and _hard_ thought. You'll thank me later."

Leon blinks, surprise to how casual he was talking to him, remembering the reason why he had to fight him in the first place.

_There's no later for one of us… _

Reluctantly, he hardens his voice. "That is, if you survive this."

"Don't worry," DiFalco quickly recovered from Gaiman rather unbalancing remarks, replying just as coldly. "I will."

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**The EURM snipers had set up on high hill, **

"Looks like they got some jamming system online somewhere," Hathcock murmurs as checks his scanners. "Activate your counter measures."

"Right," Kurz replies.

Hidden among a grove of trees, some miles northeast of the city, the Custom M1 Astray had one knee to better conceal it and the Type 71-44 beam sniper rifle aimed low toward the city. One would think he was too far to do anything, but anyone who has ever fought the "White Feather" and lived could testify, if he's confident of setting himself on a shooting position.

He _can_ and _will_ get you.

He opens the cockpit, stepping out to the edge of the platform. He closes his eyes, letting the wind blow in his face, getting a feel for the conditions that will affect his shots. Getting himself into the zone, 'the bubble' as he called it, to send his shots to their targets.

There were modern technologies that could do this for him, but he preferred to do this himself, like he always did, even as a six year old boy hunting in his grandmother's backwoods in Little Rock, Arkansas.

After a number of minutes, Hathcock gets back inside, when he was settle in he has the mobilesuit deploy a cloth-like fabric that then begins to change to a dark green camouflage style pattern. His mobilesuit was equipped with a Shooting Cloak camouflage system. When deployed, this system covers the mobilesuit with a cloth-like cloak that alters its color to match the surrounding terrain.

Karl then pulls down the sniping aid, despite the poor visibility, Karl could make out the mobilesuits in the distance thanks to his unit's special sensors and full-sensing targeting third optical camera.

His partner, Kurz Weber, was set up several dozen feet away, positioned just like the Astray with its Shooting Cloak on. Its own Type 71-44 rifle was pointing on another spot. He was no slouch when it came to accuracy either.

They sat in the dark, waiting for the illumination flares to share its light. Their units' special visual filters on their sensors would make the most of the little light they gave regardless of the storm.

It was going to be a very busy night very soon.

Neither spoke. Kurz scans the horizon for incoming aircraft. While Hathcock observe what was going on below.

He saw Dearka's Buster Dagger and several Secundus still fighting the Calamity which now had several OMNI and loyalist mobilesuits backing it up. The lines seem to be static, neither side was losing or gaining ground.

Both snipers were wary for the helicopters coming in from behind. That would signal the beginning of a relief attempt launched from Pasir Ris.

Hathcock and Weber had position themselves on a finger of the solitary hill so that they could cover much of the area. From the hill, the snipers provide a blocking force and some security for the battalion during their sweep of through the technically broad, flat area below.

This operation exercised very little of Hathcock's and Weber's abilities as snipers, requiring minimal stealth, just sharpshooting with big guns. It was sort of like a carnival shooting gallery where the Chua loyalist and Alliance forces were the targets.

Kurz stuffed a load of chewing gum into his mouth and said, "It won't be long 'til the choppers will be here. Hathcock, how're things through your scope?"

Hathcock shook his head, "Still too dark."

"Same here," Karl murmurs. "But when the slicks land, we should have plenty of light."

The snipers wait and listen to radio, waiting to hear that the operation had begun.

The distant sound of helicopters caught Hathcock's attention, almost simultaneously, the radio crackled, ""Evil Eyes, Evil Eyes. Red Man three-four. Over."

Kurz keys his radio, answering the call, "Red Man three-four, Evil Eye Two. Go ahead over."

The response came, "Roger, Evil Eye Two. Red Man three-four at point Sierra. Over."

Hathcock searches the horizon and easily picks up three helicopter silhouettes racing toward him just above a patch of treetops.

"I've got them," He said. "Tell them we're ready here."

"Red Man three-four, roger and tallyho. Evil Eyes are ready," Kurz responds.

The sweep began with eight EU/CH-10B helicopters letting go of their passengers in three 'hot' landing zones. The sound of mobilesuit arms fire filled the air as helicopters swept down the ridge lines, just above the buildings, and set down. In half a minute, this wave of choppers was up and away, leaving the EURM mobilesuit company to face the hostile fire that greeted them.

Far to the west, other choppers unloaded another company, blocking the enemy's hope for escape. The two companies would hopefully push the entrenched enemy out and into the crossfire or into the sniping unit that now waited.

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"**Captain!"**

Ian Lee's voice cracks in Roanoke's radio, "We have enemy reinforcements touching down on several points east and west of the city!"

"I see," If the news was bothering him at all, he didn't let it show. "Call the reserve forces they should be able to stave them off long enough."

Neo himself was engaging the enemy, a small group of EURM mobilesuits had managed to get within range of his own squad and the special ECM army unit, the one that handled the CWDS units, he same units that kept them on top this battle. If went, they could kiss their chances of winning this battle goodbye.

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**Elsewhere in Nee Soon**

Melissa Mao had picked up Evil Eye Two's call as her GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger and a GAT/A-01E2 Buster Dagger jump off their EU/CH-10B transport.

"Weber's here." She murmurs, "Since he's Evil Eye Two, that means Hathcock's with 'im."

"Well, at least we got some working with us this battle," Sousuke Sagara, the pilot of the Buster Dagger, comments.

"That is if they can hit their target in this friggin' rainstorm," Melissa mutters. "As good as those two are, I just hope they won't kill someone on our side, namely us."

"I doubt their accuracy will turn that bad, even with this storm on top of us," her companion pulls out the rifle and gunlauncher out. "They're the best shooters we have in Section Nine after all."

"They better be," The older soldier grumbles. "C'mon, let's move."

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_October, 58CE, the start of the four year 58-62CE Equatorial Union civil war._

_When the country was divided into several political and military factions and fought for supremacy. _

_It tore the whole nation apart, no was region was spared from the violence, no one was safe from the bloodshed. _

_The various cities and towns were like ghost towns, people were afraid to set foot outside for fear of being shot. Dead bodies left on the street unattended were testament to that fact. The only reason people would go out was to get basic necessities. _

_Livestock and fields were left unattended, water shortages were constant and basic medical services were almost non-existent, causing widespread famine and pestilence. _

_Law was in short supply and in high demand, usually existing merely as a three letter word. Order was even more so._

_Chaos and anarchy were the orders of the day._

_Armed conflict of every shape and sized occurred everywhere, at any time and place._

_My first personal encounter with death during the war was an ambush. _

_I was the point man and had passed through the area. There two enemy guerillas, sitting in a hole about hundred yards away, just waiting until the main part of the column got there. Then they aim an old Chinese-made Type 69-I RPG launcher and eleven men were blown up._

_We were walking along and suddenly, BAM! Instant death, just like that._

_That first time wasn't horrible. It was shocking in there were these men, that I knew and really cared about, dead – blown up. Angered because they didn't have a chance to fight back, they just got blown up._

_You had to get use it, because it will happen again … and again … and again. For the next four years._

_I saw lot of guys crack under all that pressure. _

_Big, tough-looking guys, you'd think they could brush anything aside, and yet you see a lot of them ending up in psych wards, living like human vegetables._

_That is if didn't kill themselves first._

_Thank God, I didn't crack._

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**Elsewhere…**

A little girl looks out the window, watching the storm brewing outside. She had his father's golden brown eyes and her mother's flowing black hair. Her face, full of innocence. Her little hand touched the glass, drawing on the moisture that formed in it.

"Still worried about your old man?" Jake Linas asks as he sat beside her. He wore an Earth Alliance uniform with the shirt undone, in his holster was a Glock 32C.

Kariza Mae 'Kari' Gaiman nods, still looking outside.

"Yeah," she replies, sounding somewhat homesick. "But I'm used to it. Dad used to be gone a lot like this all the time."

"Don't you get lonely?"

"Sometimes," The little girl shrugs. "But I know daddy loves me, that's why he works so hard. And he always find time for me no matter how tired he is or what problems he has to deal with."

Kari rests her head on the window sill supported by her arms, "Dad misses me too when he goes to do his job. Ever since mama died, he always writes, e-mails, calls me on the phone, just to know how I'm doing."

"I see…" Linas murmurs, he places hand over her head, "Feeling cold kid?"

"Yeah." She replies, turning around to nod.

"Would you want me to get you something warm?"

"Sure,"

The young soldier places his uniform shirt over the girl's shoulders, "Just give me a few minutes."

_Good kid_, Jake thought sadly, as he heads to the cafeteria, really wishing he could tell her what was happening to her father.

But orders were orders, and his was not to tell her anything.

Now he understood why the guys wanted to draw straws for who was going to look after the kid, this was just too much stress on one's conscience.

He just had to be the one to draw the short stick…

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**Ken's Primus and Leon's N Dagger N continue exchanging blows**

They were so far, well matched, each attempted attack was blocked then countered. Both pilots were just beginning to gouge on each other's suits.

Impressed was an understatement to describe what Ken was feeling, this pilot he facing had very excellent control of his machine, his judgment and reflexes were just uncanny for a natural, and added to the fact he shared the same sword style as he did and probably also mastered Tsubame Gaeshi – possibly even perfected it.

Coordinator or not, this man had more than just a chance at killing him.

As much as he didn't want to do it as a swordsman, he decided that survival came first, even if it meant taking unfair advantage.

"_Lesson Thirty-four:_" He unhappily reminds himself, "_The one who fights fair is the one who dies._"

"How's your daughter, Leon?" Ken asks suddenly, causing Leon to pause, stunned by remark.

The Primus executes a beam saber slash over his head. Leon, seeing that attack, raised his anti-ship sword and blocks Ken's blow.

"That's none of your business!" Leon snarls, doing a shoulder tackle after he blocked the attack.

"You're a smart man, Gaiman." Ken continues, "Do you honestly think they'll give her back to if you actually killed me?""

"Shut up!" The two mobile suit pilots clashed their swords after Ken executed a slash with Gerbera Straight while Leon did a vertical swipe with Schwert Gewehr, leading to another sword lock.

Ken's teeth subtly grit under his lips, trying to gain an advantage with his Primus custom over Leon's N Dagger N. _He's hardly even budging…_

_He's definitely good… _Leon muses, he couldn't help be amazed at his opponent's skill. His mastery of the Chujo-Ryu style is just amazing, even if he was a coordinator. _This guy's definitely the Ace of Aces… But… _

"Let's see what you do with this!" Leon presses hard on the throttle, N Dagger N's thrusters ignite, pushing the mobilesuit forward.

"Gotcha!" Leon won the clash by shoving the Primus with the N Dagger N's left elbow as he exerted a little more pressure on his sword toward Ken's.

Using the thrusters, the N Dagger N' jumps in the air, kicking the Primus in the cockpit area with its left foot. Ken curses as he staggers back.

"Say goodbye, Falcon!" Leon charges forward, intending to thrust the anti-ship sword right through the Primus.

Ken manages to recover his balance just in time, to block the attack. "It's not yet time for goodbyes, Leon."

The both instinctively swung their swords again, and again their blades met, canceling each other's attack, they both boost backwards to gain space.

To each other's amazement, they were back where they started.

Inside his cockpit, Leon was breathing hard, but found himself chuckling. "Crissakes, right back where we started… This is sure turning out to be long and drawn out…"

Inside the Primus, Ken's breathing was little more controlled, he too found himself smiling, if only slightly.

"I should've expected this… from a Wolf of Wind."

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_The Wolves of Wind…_

_A group led by a man that went by the name the Black Wolf._

_To some, they were heroes who did their best to keep the order within a divided the nation, hunting criminals, renegade soldiers , even faction leaders who were known and proven to be corrupt._

_To others, they were the assassins, a band of rogues who took advantage of the chaos for their personal gain, possibly even serving the government._

_I won't deny or confirm either view, because we only did what we had to do. _

_We were mere men and women took burden of taking matters into their hands._

…_Even if it meant staining them with blood._

_Most of us weren't proud of the things done during the conflict, but it wasn't like we had much of a choice. _

_Either we did what we did or the whole country could've ended up worse than it already did._

"_Aku Soku Zan"_

"_To kill evil immediately"_

_That was the code we lived by._

_The one I once lived by…_

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**Blade clashes against blade, **

Leon grins, for a while, he once again forgets why he was doing this.

"Well done, Falcon," he whispers. "This quite a battle… It's been a while since I've met someone who can deal it like one of my old master? Tell me, who trained you?"

"Sasaki Kojiro," Ken whispers back, the Primus presses its blade forward. "He taught me the Art of the blade, a long time ago."

"Kojiro huh?" The older soldier murmurs, drawing back. "I don't know he is, but he must have known Chujo-Ryu rather well."

The ace nods, "He has more wisdom than one of Tolkien's elves, and a habit of testing his students by jumping out of the dark with a drawn sword."

"I see," Leon chuckles, liking the younger man's humor, "Y'know, we'd probably ended up as pretty good friends if it didn't come to this."

The N Dagger N dashes forward, making a backhand slash with the shorter -G07D+ anti-armor sword.

Ken smirks, raising the Gerbera Straight to block. "And that's a good thing?"

Leon laughs. "So there is some sense of humor in the great Falcon of Grimaldi."

"I just don't show it too often," the ace replies dryly, making a circular strafe, going in for an attack.

Leon smiled, but those words snapped him back to the reality of the situation.

His expression hardened, catching the thrust on his the short anti-armor sword and diverts it. He lets go the Schwert Gewehr and pulls out his single Mk315 "Stiletto" rocket-propelled anti-armor penetrator and plunges it into the right arm. This cuts through electrical lining of his suit, disabling it and causing the hand to lets go of the Gerbera Straight.

Ken forces his Primus backwards, as he attempted to adjust for his error. _Damn!_

Seeing the N Dagger N charging at him, Ken drew back his remaining beam saber, readying it for a backhand blow. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Leon. So be it."

Gaiman lets out a loud cry, and with a speed that surprised the ace, avoiding the slash with a simple duck, giving himself an opening.

"Game over, Falcon," He swings his Short Anti-armor sword toward the cockpit.

Ken grits as he moves his saber to block, and the N Dagger N's short sword meets it in a resounding impact. The sheer impact causes the physical blade to shatter.

"No!" Leon screams in frustration as he got as close to killing his foe thus far, he quickly follows up with an overhand jab with Schwert Gewehr's pommel to the cockpit for another opening, he then swings the blade as hard as he could. Ken raises his saber to block as he boosted away, the beam catches the long weapon, but the impact was enough to knock the weapon out of the Primus' hand.

Ken cursed, _Wonderful… okay DiFalco, what now?_

The N Dagger N points the blade of the Schwert Gewehr toward the Primus, "Time to end this…"

DiFalco quickly pulls out an armor penetrator knife, just managing to parry the long blade. As he did so he thought of his next move, "It's risky… But what do I have to lose?"

Ken dodges Leon next attack by boosting upwards.

The Primus cuts through the air as it thrusts up ward, Ken has his Primus' working hand reach for the Tactical Arms' heavy sword as it ejected out.

He catches it and he begins to descend, Ken then looks down toward Gaiman's N Dagger N, he pushes his throttles down hard. The thrusters of the Tactical Arms all go off, sending the mobilesuit straight down at a high speed.

Ken pushes a dial in the radio, transmitting to multiple frequencies.

As the Primus went down, an inhuman, ascending wail was heard through radios on all sides. Almost in cue, the large bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, it so close the thunder came almost immediately, it was a large, deafening sound.

"Sonova…!" Leon raises his anti-ship sword to block.

Ken dove on, with help of the thrusters and gravity, the Tactical Arms blade went right through the Schwert Gewehr and the N Dagger N's right shoulder, cleaving off the left arm, just missing the cockpit by a couple of feet. Gaiman yells as the cockpit shook violently, his unit staggers backwards. With uncanny speed, Falcon pulls out his last armor penetrator and plunges it into the N Dagger N's chest.

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**Jonas Pike noted the sudden disappearance of Gaiman's signal in the radar, **

Not that he really cared. _DiFalco managed to dispose of Gaiman… Heh, no skin off my back._

He continued to engage Jean in his custom M1 Astray, going at him with one of his Schwert Gewehrs while Jean engaged him with a saber.

"Why do you people even bother?" The unit commander comments. "What a pity, rebel, because it's actually quite a crime that you you're fighting for these people."

"A crime to you, maybe." Jean replies, undaunted. "But not for me."

"Ha!" Pike snorts. "Do you think these people will help you when you need them? They're just using you people! You mercenaries are disposable troops for all they care! "

"And what you've been doing to the Equatorial union before this war was different?" Jean counters, pulling out his second saber. "What this country can do for me doesn't matter, so long as they are free from your military's oppression, that's good enough for me!"

Pike snorts in derision. "This country's going to burn! No matter what you do!"

"Not when me and the others are around!" Jean charges forward and the duel between the two skilled pilots continue.

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**Nearby, Gai Murakumo and Yazan Gable continue to square off, **

The Sword Calamity's Schwert Gewehr descends over the Blue frame, the latter mobilesuit blocks by crossing its two Type 70 beamsabers and catching the anti-ship sword blade.

"You're definitely good," Yazan says as he quickly has his left hand grab an Armor Schneider combat knife and goes for the cockpit with it.

Gai steps to one side to dodge, "You're not one to sneeze at either."

He then pushes himself backwards by shoving the anti-ship sword and kicking the Sword Calamity's cockpit, firing his CIWS as he does so.

Snarling with rage, Yazan opens his unit's chest for a blast with the Scylla. Gai boosts up in the air and fires his Type-71 beamrifle. "Try this for size!" The Sword Calamity dodges the blast, responding by launching one of its "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchor.

"My turn!" Gai weaves to one side and cuts the line with his beamsaber, he then boosts forward, straight to the enemy.

Yazan curses as Gai dodges the second Scylla he fired, hurriedly pulls out his beam boomerangs as the Blue Frame got closer.

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**The N Dagger N began to lose power, **

Though the reactor was undamaged, vital systems of the mobilesuit had been destroyed, making it inoperable anyway. After several steps backwards, the N Dagger N falls on its back, crashing onto the ground.

Nearby, Ken sets his Primus to rest on one knee about a hundred meters from the wreckage. After the machine's hatch opened, Ken leaps to the street below.

He makes the brief jog toward the now mangled N Dagger N, his hand placed on Griever's hilt as he makes his approach. His grip tightened as he saw the N Dagger N's hatch open.

Nothing for several moments, until finally Leon climbs out, and set foot on the ground, facing Falcon, who stood several meters away.

"Hello, Falcon," he said quietly. "It's good to finally meeting you face to face."

Ken nods, "Feeling's mutual," he replies. "Y'know, that part you said of us being friends, it's not too late for us to start."

Leon looks down on the water logged group. "I know… But that thing is… I can't. We both know that. "

He draws two k-bar knives, "There's no choice, Ken," he said quietly. "You'll have to kill me. There's no other way... If you don't take me out now, I'll keep coming after you, again and again."

Griever comes out of its sheath, "Very well, you've made your choice."

"Please understand Falcon," Gaiman assumes a knife stance. "I'm sorry."

Ken suddenly felt a feeling of pain as he experienced Dejavu. Months ago, he and Victor Tempest also known Huckebein the Raven had a brief chat just like this, just before they fought.

_It's just like that time…_ Ken thought, considering his own response. _It's just like Victor…_

"All right," Ken DiFalco said calmly. "Let's finish this, Leon."

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**In another part of the city**

Dearka, Elijah and the Secundus team were still engaging the Calamity and Deep Forbidden who had just teamed up along with several Slaughter Daggers, while Gai and Jean were busy with the Sword Calamities.

Ramsus Hasa was pinning a good bunch of them, including Dearka, with his aggressive but thoughtful use of his firepower.

"Damn!" Elijah crashes the blade of his heavy sword against the Deep Forbidden's trident, further creating a clash that was either make or break both of them.

Without so much as a warning, two beam shots aimed at the Forbidden almost striking it, but Dunkel was able to back off in time.

"Who the hell did that?" Tim yells, his beamrifle at the ready.

"Damn... almost got him." A voice said on the young Guardsman's radio line.

"Dammit Sagara!" Elijah snarls, as he saw the S9 member's Buster Dagger approach. "You almost killed me with that!"

"Now's not the time to complain." Moving to Elijah and Tim's units' left, Melissa fired her beam rifle's grenade launcher at two Slaughter Daggers that were engaging Hamid and Davan's Secunduses. "C'mon we got push these guys back. Sagara, call Evil Eyes, get them zeroed here. We should be within range."

"Copy," The young Section Nine Sergeant responds, keying his radio. "Eye Eyes, Evil Eyes, Red Man three-four, requesting fire support at point Juliet. Repeat, requesting fire support at point Juliet, over."

"Evil Eyes Two," Kurz's voice cracks in the radio, "Copy Red 3-4, providing support."

At the same moment of the response, an OMNI Slaughter Dagger gets struck in the cockpit area by a beam shot that apparent came from the distance, the Slaughter Dagger explodes.

"Dang…" Tim murmurs, as he slices another Slaughter Dagger in half from the waist, see how far the shot came from, which was about nine miles, out of the effective range of most beam weapons. "He's good."

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**Back on the hill,**

Hathcock aims his sights on the next target with the sniping aid, his unit's full sensing sniping camera scans the terrain. The OMNI-forces' jamming device was interfering with the accuracy, but not enough.

Kurz, acting as spotter, hears the sudden discharge from the muzzle of the M1 Astray's Type 71-44 sniper rifle. Another Slaughter Dagger, who firing at one of Secundus, gets destroyed as the cockpit explodes. Karl waited, staring through the sights, waiting anyone else who'd walk into his sights.

"Look to the left," Kurz radios.

A loyalist government Duel Dagger trots across the open. He was equipped with Fortresta mode armor, holding his beamrifle on his right, shield on his left. He was about to attack.

Karl drops him too, he again waits.

"Another one," Weber calls.

"Got him," Karl said, waiting for the Buster Dagger to make a pause, possibly to link up his weapons. The rifle snapped, and the third Dagger joins the other two.

"Somebody's peeking out where the first two came from."

"Got 'im."

Hathcock followed the Dagger L, armed with a Launcher Strike, cautiously moving through the street, but not cautiously enough. Before he even saw the enemy, Hathcock snuffed out his lights.

"Four, anymore?" Hathcock asks quietly.

"Yeah, three Primuses. They're just sitting a little up north of the last kill trying to see what's happening. With this storm blowing in our faces, I don't think they know where shots are coming from. They're trying to hide behind that big building."

"There must be an alley back there," Hathcock mumbles. "But these guys are making this easy."

He waits for two minutes, and then the three Primuses move cautiously towards the OMNI unit they were supposed to support.

"Three-round rapid fire," Hathcock chuckles as he looks through the sight. His first shot surprises the group, and the two still-living pilots move their suits back to flee. A second shot dropped one, leaving kicking on the remains, the last Primus pirouetted in confusion. He was still spinning when the beam shot pierces through his cockpit door, hitting him square in the chest as his Primus whirled in a death dance.

"Whoa," Kurz whispers in wonder. "Seven cockpit shots in a row, that must be record."

Karl shook his head, "Nah, Zaytsev made eleven in a row couple months back. You wanna switch?"

Weber grins, pulling down his own sniping aid. "Why not? The God of Sniping could use some exercise."

Hathcock rolled his eyes, but he knew the younger Section Nine member had the skills and the right to brag like that.

Unfortunately.

"Just keep those guys busy. I'm patching up to the satellite. When I get 'em lined up, we can really go to town by then."

"Rig– Gotcha!!" Kurz' sniper rifle discharges, in the distance, a Slaughter Dagger drop on its face.

Karl sighs, "Don't shout, dammit."

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**Nearby, Tom Delaney and Leanne Eldridge continue to fight the tandem N Dagger Ns.**

Leanne grits her teeth as her shield take another beam shot for her, she lost count of how many hits she blocked with it, but she knew won't last any longer. The anti-beam coating should be wearing off by now. She also knew that her battery will follow soon enough. If she and Tom were fighting less experienced pilots, it wouldn't be much of a problem, even against nuclear-powered mobilesuits.

But unfortunately, they were obviously dealing with veteran pilots from the last war. They both had the skill and experience, and they had nuclear-powered those N Dagger Ns.

"Hey Tom," she calls to her partner. "How're you holding?"

"Just barely keeping myself alive," Tom grunts as he blocks Kazimiera's saber. "You?"

"Same thing," Leanne replies grimly. "I never knew OMNI has still pilots this good… almost Grey Demons good."

"I know what you– look out!" Tom yells as Robert Egan and Kazimiera Rakuzanka were about to do another double team attack.

Egan's N Dagger N fire a hand anchor at the wall, lifts up and makes a wall-run, Kazimiera does same on the opposite wall. Both detach their anchors the same time, Kazi fires her "Hakenfaust" piercer-lock while Robert fires his Schildgewehr.

Tom blocks the beam shot, while Leanne takes out the Hakenfaust with her beamrifle. Both quickly, move to defend themselves again, because they knew what was coming next. Their sabers and shields meet with the weapons of the N Dagger Ns in a furious clash, the force of impact was enough to forcibly move the Long Daggers by several feet.

"Dang," Robert murmurs to Rakuzanka. "For even coordinator kids, they sure are. Good."

"What did you expect Rob?" Kazi replies, "Kinder-gardeners? They're Grey Demons, dammit."

**Meanwhile, **

Danny Fisk was continuing his part to hold off a EURM force, firing his Schildgewehr at the enemy forces whilst hidden in mirage colloid

"Hey, Danny!" Kazi yells over the radio, "You still alive?"

"Yeah, Im still alive, don't worry." The former Californian lifeguard assures. "I heard reports that the EURM's sendin' in some support forces to assist."

"Copy," She replies. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Sure, over and out." Targeting a EURM linear tank, he fires a single 70mm. blast as it fires its linear gun which he sidesteps effortlessly.

"Miss me, bitch!" Danny taunts the totaled unit before again vanishing into the darkness.

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**Ken met Leon in a furious clash, **

Just like that moment with Victor during the closing months of the war. Except this time, he wasn't fighting an old friend, though he felt he could have been if they met earlier.

As Griever met Gaiman's knives, Ken saw the in Leon's eyes the determination that was his driving force the moment their blades met. Tempered by the discipline of the blade and experience gained in countless fights, Ken no longer saw Leon Gaiman in front of him, but the side of the man that made him the "The Sandman" and the "Panamanian Cobra".

Hrunting, one of the four Alpha Wolves of the Wolves of Wind.

Two soldiers, A Falcon and a Wolf, two minds so alike yet so different.

The Falcon sidestepped a slash meant for his right arm, feeling the rush of air as one of The Wolf's fangs cut past a centimeter from his body. The Wolf quickly recovered, breaking the other fang up to stop Griever just in front of his face, and lunged out the other, striking the Falcon in the gut.

The Falcon fell back a pace, left hand briefly grasping his stomach in instinct, but he counters just as swift, his blade sweeps a horizontal arc for the Wolf's neck. The Wolf jumps back, letting one fang fly, striking the Falcon on his shoulder. The Falcon hisses, quickly but carefully out the blade before throwing it aside.

The leader of the Demons weaves to one side, his own hand coming up in a slap to the side of the Wolf's arm, deflecting the blow into empty air. His hand slipped back to Griever's hilt, he leapt, bioengineered muscles carrying him over the Wolf's head, twisting around to land facing the other warrior's back.

The Wolf follows him, spinning around in the same moment, his fang and the falcon's talon slice through the air at each other's throats. Edge grinded against edge, blade pressed hard against blade, muscles strained, but neither Griever nor the Wolf's fang budged.

They quickly push each other to distance themselves, however the pause was short as both again went back at each other.

The Falcon was prepared to parry the Wolf's knife, but to his surprise, the other warrior throws the knife. But deflects the weapon easily, but when his eyes focused back to the Wolf, the Falcon saw he had brought another pair of weapons. Ones he had only vaguely heard of before.

Bladed weapons consisting of two steel crescents crossing, these crossings produce four curved, claw-like points, one of which is extended as the "main" blade. The Wolf grips the wrapped middle of the lengthened crescent with the other acting as a hand guard.

These were Deer-horn knives, Chinese weapons specially made for fighting longer weapons like spears and swords.

The Wolf catches the Griever with one in his left, he then drives the right one at the Falcon's chest. The former ZAFT ace tries to pull away, but the Wolf twists his wrist slightly, making the deer-horn's blades lock onto the Griever. As the younger soldier tries to pull his weapon free, the right deer-horn knife finds its mark.

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_My sensei, who taught the Chujo-Ryu sword style to me, was a part of the group. _

_Before the 58CE Civil war, the Wolves were once an unofficial, secret intelligence organization that kept tabs on suspect foreigners who set foot on Equatorial soil and the borders. _

_Martial arts were taught to us a form of defense, as back then we weren't allowed to carry firearms._

_I was always good with Eskrima, knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat was nothing new to me. But the art was more practical than spiritual._

_When Shouka Kou-sensei first saw me, he saw that I was physically and mentally prepared, but was lacking spiritually and emotionally._

_He took me under his wing, from what I understand, I was just the second person that had that honor._

_The exercises he gave, were easy enough for, but that's just a small part of what he gave me._

_He also gave me, philosophical riddles for me solve to sharpen my wits, advance meditation to harden my meta-physical endurance, along with reading miles worth of text._

_I swear to you, honest to God, those were hard._

_But they helped me prepare for the 58CE civil war, a coming storm that my sensei apparently foresaw. _

_The things sensei taught me probably saved my life._

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**Seeing that he couldn't make it**

Falcon quickly sidesteps, but not before his chest caught some of the blade of the deer-horn. He hisses, only then does he manage to pull Griever away. He jumps back, left hand clutching his chest.

The Wolf stares coldly at the Falcon, as blood dripped from his the blades of his right hand weapon. The man breathing fast for a moment, but was now remain silent, assuming a sword stance being as calm as he could.

"You're good with that blade, Falcon," he said quietly, assuming a stance similar to a boxer's. "Just as I expected, in fact you're too good. If I fought you with my own sword, my chances would be too 50-50. So I decided to bring along these, in case we had to settle this way."

The Falcon does his best to ignore the pain. "You decided to use a weapon I'm to likely to never have seen let alone fought before. Sly, very sly, Hrunting."

The Wolf smiles only slightly, "So you knew…"

The younger man shrugged, "I was hoping to recruit at least some of you for a little group I'm starting."

The Wolf simply nods, he then launches himself, swinging both fists. DiFalco blocks with Griever, sparks were caused as the weapons met.

He exerts full force against the young man's blade. He was focused, focused to just kill this man, focused to get this over with and get his daughter back. He manages to direct his frustration, grief, rage to this young man. Convincing himself that it if it wasn't for him, his daughter wouldn't have been kidnapped; if it wasn't for him, the war wouldn't have lasted as long as it did; if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't have lost so many friends during the war; if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't be here. Giving him the nerve and drive to carry out his terrible task.

"Think fast!" The Wolf once again locks the Griever in place, this time with both knives, at the same time he launches his at DiFalco's stomach.

The Falcon reels back, Griever slips out of his hands, falling down to the street. He was defenseless against the roundhouse kick the Wolf then delivered, connect to the side of his face. Falcon spins around once as before he lands on the wet ground.

The older soldier stows the knives back to their custom holsters as he walked toward where the Falcon lay. The younger soldier struggled to get himself up. But as he manages to do so, The Wolf breaks into a run, sending his right fist into the side of his head.

The Falcon flings like a rag doll, splashing through the puddles in the street as battle continued to rage around them, this time Falcon lay still.

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**In another area of Nee Soon, **

Entrenched among the ruined building with Sousuke, Elijah, Dearka and the Secundus pilots, Melissa get a radio link from the snipers.

"Red Man 3-1, yeah what is it, Evil Eyes?"

"I did a sat-com sweep of the area. The jamming's main source is within about two blocks from your current position, over."

"Copy, thanks for the heads up Evil Eyes." She switches channels to her companions. "Guys, Evil eyes say that the OMNI forces' jammer's in the area in this area!"

"Great." Tim mutters, "I guess we better split up and ditch those two psychos, find the damn jammer thing, wreck it and get this over with."

"That is if we survive them," Dearka yells when he detected something in his scanners. "Incoming!"

Seeing the combined Loyalist-OMNI mobile suit squad approaching with OMNI Linear Tanks and Loyalist ST Kinetic Bionix-2 Tanks, he blasted at the enemy Strike and Buster Daggers with his 320mm. anti-armor shotgun and 220mm. missiles.

"C'mon!" Hamid snarls, his PT Pindad 100 mm PM1 ground rocket launcher at the ready. "I'll make sure that you're all gone when I'm done, to free this country of you people!"

He began firing rockets as fast and accurately as he could, the others passing to him the spare rockets they were carrying.

"Why you little…!" Dodging beam saber swipes from two Primuses, Melissa raises her anti-beam shield to protect her mobile suit, she jumps back after lowering it and fires her beam rifle at them, eliminating the two mobile suits. Seeing the Linear and Bionix-2 tanks on the ground, she aims her rifle at them firing the grenade launcher first before firing the beam rifle itself.

_More of them…_ Spotting a group of loyalist Buster and Long Daggers approaching, Dearka links up his weapons again to form the 94mm. hyper impulse sniper rifle.

"Eat this!" Firing the weapon, a couple of Buster Daggers, Long Daggers and an unfortunate Primus had its right arm destroyed from the beam fire.

Eyeing the surviving Primus, Sousuke rushes towards it and goes at it with his ES01 beamsaber, thrusting into its cockpit. Retracting the beam blade quickly, the Primus goes up in a fiery explosion.

At the controls of his GINN, Elijah fights with two Dagger Ls armed with M703K beam carbine rifles. Using the older mobilesuit's MA-M3 heavy sword, he sliced one of both units' arms as he charges past them. He quickly turns around unleashing a volley of 500mm. round from recoilless rifle.

"That oughta take care of them." Dearka grins under his helmet after watching the 500mm. rounds make scrap metal out of the two mobile suits.

"Everyone all right?" Melissa calls to everyone.

"I'm fine at least." Hamid mutters. "Let's get this over already and get back to base."

"Before anything else happens," Tim mutters in an uncharacteristically sour tone, surprising his teammates who knew him to be very cheerful.

"Must be the weather," Avir comments to himself as he follows him and the others.

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**The Wolf again walks toward his limp opponent,**

As he was about to grab him, one of the Grimaldi Falcon's feet rises up, catching him in the face. As the Wolf clutches his face, the Falcon aims a roundhouse kick at his head. But evidently, the Wolf saw it coming and catches his ankle with one hand.

He was about to counter, when the Falcon's other foot left the ground and hits him in the side of the head. Combined with the one still in the Wolf's hold, he spins around like a rag doll before landing hand to the ground.

He snarls in pain loudly, apparently an internal injury had been aggravated.

The Falcon pushes himself to his feet. Just as he did so, he saw his sword, Griever, as it lay in a puddle several meters away.

Without even thinking, he throws caution to the wind and dashes toward it.

Seeing what he intended, Gaiman pulls out his USP45CT sidearm, took aim and began to shoot. His aim however would have been better if his right arm didn't hurt so much, something was broken and it was affecting his aim.

_Why… Why now…?!_

He ran after DiFalco, continuing to shoot as he did ignoring the pain as it got excruciating after each shot.

But it was all for naught, Ken made a commando roll as he snatched Griever off the ground. On one knee, he deflected several bullets that targeted him.

Leon's face pales when he saw that Ken had Griever in his hand again.

"Damn… so close…" He holsters his gun, knowing it was pointless to use it against him now.

"I'm sorry for what Blue Cosmos has done to you, Leon." Ken murmurs, looking at the man in the eye. "But I can't just let you kill me either. I too have people to protect."

"So… once more," Kenneth DiFalco's eyes narrow as he trains the blade of his katana toward his target, he then dashes forward, letting out his infamous hunting call.

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"**What?-!" **

Neo this time shows emotion when given more bad news, this time, it was much worse.

Ian Lee cringed at his tone, he also began to sweat. "I've received a report from forward unit that the enemy seems to have somehow traced our CWDS jammings. A EURM unit is slowly making headway toward it, they seem to have snipers supporting them, very good ones. Our men can't engage too unless they want to killed."

"Great." Roanoke muttered under his breath. "This is just really great. Contact the 8th battalion commander, have them send in reinforcements. Call Pike's men back and have them protect the CWDS unit, if we lose it, we'll lose our key advantage."

"Yes sir," After Ian gets off the radio, Roanoke began cursing vilely.

"What else can go wrong…?" He shook his head, he knew that taking down the Grimaldi Falcon was going to be difficult, but he never expected it to be this… draining. "I guess I better move out as well…

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**Ken was about to swing his blade in upward diagonal arc**

It was so fast that Leon barely had enough time to pull out his deer-horn knives again to block it. He catches the blade with both knives, but the injury in his right arm was again stressed on and it gave way.

With this, Leon tries to jump back but not before Griever's tip manages to catches his flesh, making cut from below his right arm pit to his left shoulder.

He cries out in pain, clutching the new wound, it was shallow but he knew he could possible bleed death because of it.

"Leon," DiFalco murmurs. "You should stop and give up. There's not way you can defeat me in your current state."

Upon hearing this, Leon's eyes narrow. "Don't you ever look down on me!"

He lunges forward, ignoring the pain, he throws his right arm to catch the blade of Griever and locks it in place. This time, Ken manages to break away to evade the left jab he expect. But to his surprise, it never came, Leon instead tosses a green, slightly bent plate. Ken's eyes widen when he realizes what it was, an anti-personnel claymore, and it was rigged with remote detonator.

Leon squeezes the trigger as he jumped away.

The mine explodes, the blast focused at Ken's direction.

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"**And ya think you're going?"**

Ramsus Hasa asks as he fires both Schlag cannons at the group Melissa, Sousuke, Elijah and the Secundus pilots. The Cooper and several Slaughter Daggers were with him overhead.

Davan curses, he almost got hit by a beam shot as he and several of his teammates hide behind a building. "Don't these guys ever give up?-!"

He and Hamid next to him get showered by dirt and debris from a nearby explosion.

"I guess that answers your question?" Hamid asks, as he goes to fire a rocket.

"Sorry I asked…" Davan mutters, covering him with beamfire.

"Stay sharp!" Elijah warns as he fires both his recoilless rifle and machinegun at the Slaughter Daggers in the air, "I'm picking up additional incoming.

"Dammit!" Tim curses as he blasts one Strike Dagger to oblivion. "More company?-!"

His radar detects three blips, indicating hostile mobile suits were approaching. Looking at the main monitor while clashing with A Slaughter Dagger's beam saber, he saw two Sword Calamities and a Windam flying straight for their position.

_Oh great, those two and that new prototype, where the hell are Gai and Jean?_

**Melissa found herself fighting with Dunkel's Deep Forbidden. **

Holstering her beam rifle, she drew out her beamsaber and crashed again with Cooper's trident.

"Dammit! These guys are here to finish us off! Unless help's coming, then we'll be finished in the battlefield..."

Managing to glance at his monitors again, he noted that reinforcement had arrived in the form of several GINNs, Gai's Astray blue Frame Second L and Jean's custom M1 Astray. _Well it's about time..._

**"We better give a hand out here!" **

Jean yells to his companion. "Murakumo! Isn't that purple one the mobilesuit Rick Chung fought in Pasir Ris couple months back?"

"Sure is!" Gai acknowledges. "Better keep him from doing too much damage I'll warn the others."

"All right!" Locking onto the Deep Forbidden, Jean fires his M1 Astray's beam rifle. Unfortunately, the Deep Forbidden saw it coming and the energy deflection armor had deflects it away.

"Damn!" Carrey cursed, flying overhead and trying to swing the mobilesuit around to try another go when his radar had detects hostile F-7D Spearhead and VTOL aircrafts.

"Better take care guys first," He murmurs, he flies towards the incoming Spearhead and VTOL fighter squadrons. Locking onto his targets, Jean fires the beam fires, downing some Spearheads and a couple of VTOL fighters, making sure he doesn't hit the cockpits.

**On the ground, **

Three regular GINNs, one red custom GINN and the Blue Frame were engaged with Neo's forces alongside the original combatants. Pike and the others had been ordered by Neo to engage the newcomers while he would stay back and engaged with the current hostiles.

"It's payback time!" Lunamaria in her newly repaired GINN unit aims then fire her Barrus, taking out two loyalist Primuses.

"Hey there," Gai once again fights with Yazan, clashing his beam saber against Gable's beam boomerang. "Thought you give me the slip did ya?"

"Real impressive, Murakumo!" Gable grins, attempting a beam slash. "Sorry 'bout that, had to follow orders. Now, let's finish what we started!"

"You thoughts exactly!" Gai thrusts his beam shield, but Gable dodges.

Gable does a vertical beam slash, Gai dodges by moving out of the way as he quickly holsters his beamsaber and draws out his Type-71 beamrifle. Yazan uses his shield to temporarily daze before attempting to finish him off.

_Say goodb– _Gable saw missiles flying straight for him from his left. Jumping a short distance back, the said projectiles landed a short foot away near his new position.

"Oh no you don't!" Elijah yells, using his machinegun and recoilless at the Jachin Due veteran. "I'm not gonna let you kill my partner and boss that easily!"

Yazan cringed, watching rounds fly overhead, he does so even more when he saw the Blue Frame had recovered. "Damn..."

"Now where were we?" Gai asks as he goes back at him with beamrifle and saber out.

**"Hey Sagara! You out there?" **

Dearka yells, his Buster Dagger engaging Hasa's Calamity in combat.

"I think I need some help here!" He fires his 320mm. gunlauncher at his approaching enemy. Hasa dodges with ease and uses his "Todesblock" 337mm plasma-sabot bazooka to retaliate. Dearka, being a veteran of the Bloody Veteran war, dodges his shots, which instead take out an enemy Strike Dagger.

"Shit!" Cooper curses himself for missing the shots. When he looks back at his monitor, he was alarmed to see a shot from Dearka's beamrifle disable the end of his bazooka, forcing him throw it before the weapon exploded.

**"Nah," **

Sagara replies. "You're doing just fine." Sagara chooses to face the incoming mobilesuits, alongside Tim, Avir and Jean who had just finished off all the fighters nearby.

"Hey you," Sousuke calls. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Tim answers. "But watch out, these guys are good!"

"Right," Sousuke nods.

When Pike's Sword Calamity and Neo's Windam were in combat range, Pike opens fire with its Scylla to force them to scatter. Once that was done, the Windam drew out its beam saber and lunged at Tim's Secundus.

"Avir, Tim!" Jean yells from the cockpit of his M1 Astray. "I'll keep the Sword Calamity busy. You two, take care of that prototype. Sousuke, cover our backs!"

"Right!"

Jean then attacks first with his beamsaber, forcing Pike to pull out one of his anti-ship swords.

The weapon's blades clash, but Jean loses his footing and falls to the ground. He reacts by firing the "Igelstellung" 75mm. CIWS, along with Sousuke firing his gunlauncher and rifle in support, Pike was forced to move back long enough for the custom M1 Astray to get back up.

Tim and Avir, on the other hand, went head-to-head with Neo Roanoke and his Prototype Windam.

"Look what we have here." Giving a smirk, Neo drew out his ES04B beamsaber. "Do you think you young pups can stand up against me?"

"Be careful what you say pal!" Avir dodges the beam slashes, countering with his own

"You might just look stupid when we beat you!" Tim adds, firing his and Avir's beam assault rifles on both hands.

"Not likely!" Pike fires off another blast from his Scylla, Tim and Avir split up to dodge.

**Meanwhile,**

As Sousuke blasts the Slaughter Daggers that accompany Roanoke, Pike and Gable with the 94mm. hyper impulse sniper rifle and the remaining 220mm. missiles, he patches a link to the snipers.

"Evil eyes, this is Red man 3-4, requesting immediate support in point India, we're getting hammered here. You copy?"

"This is Evil eyes two, we copy, Red Man 3-4, stand by."

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"**Okay, the quantum links with the satellites are good,"**

Karl Hathcock calls his partner, "Fire at will, kiddo."

Kurz Weber smirks, also linking up with the Preybird's power satellites which were converted for reconnaissance and Orb surveillance satellites, downloading targeting and positional data for his shots. This along with the full sensing scope, made both men's already uncanny sniping abilities godlike.

If the enemy thought things were bad just the way they were operating until then, they were about to get a very unpleasant wake up call.

Kurz couldn't stop grinning. "Good hunting, Feather."

Hathcock stows away the keyboard and pulls down the sniping aid, "You too."

"Oh God of Sniping," He adds with a smirk.

Weber laughs, "About time you appreciated my skill."

Hathcock grins, "Don't expect it to last long."

After he breaks his link with Kurz, Hathcock turns off his radio, there would be no calls for a while. He and his partner split up, moving to separate parts of the hill.

The quickest and easiest way for a sniper to die was to stay in one spot too long, this is especially true when you're using a beam weapon which any observant soldier can track the source of the projectiles.

After Karl had set himself up again, he trains his sights looking the EURM unit he had been supporting. As soon he finds them, he goes to find the nearest hostile to hit.

"One shot…" He slowly pulls the trigger, until finally the rifle reports, sending a green bolt of death flying almost eight miles into an OMNI Slaughter Dagger that was only several meters where captain Roanoke stood.

"… One kill."

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"**Where…"**

Neo Roanoke was more than a little shook up from what had just happened, as he continued to fighting Tim and Avir.

"Where did that come from…?"

Almost as though it was a response to his question, several other OMNI and loyalist government forces mobilesuits were taken out beam shot from an unknown source.

More would soon follow.

Seeing that the sudden storm of beam shot was targeting their enemy, the EURM forces and their volunteer/mercenary comrades began to fight more confidently. They had a shield to protect them now, it was time to turn the battle and finally end it.

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**At the same time, as the rain began to weaken**

Leon's eyes narrow and his hands tightened on his weapons as he toward his opponent.

He then smirks, "Looks like we're pretty much on the same shape. Eh, DiFalco?"

Ken, down on one knee, winces. His left eye was exposed as the eyepatch had been blown off, the rest of his body wasn't doing as well either. He had managed to evade most of the blast by diving to one side, but he still caught several pieces of shrapnel through out his body.

"Sneaky Gaiman," Ken murmurs weakly, "I've under estimated you horribly."

"Going to the extreme, just like what you're known for," Ken gingerly gets up his feet, this time there was genuine smirk in his face. "Truly not one to taken lightly."

"Thanks," Leon replies, also smiling. "You're no cake walk yourself. But this is actually getting us no where fast."

The younger ace nods. "If we keep this up, there maybe nothing much of either of us left to determine a victor."

"How about we settle this then," Gaiman twirls his deer-horn knives, "The good ol' old-fashioned way?"

"Agreed," Ken DiFalco assumes a stance.

Leon look at the weapons he held, he looked at the oriental engravings that decorated the blade which, despite being used for years, were shining like they were newly forged and polished. He knew he was physically much weaker than when he was the Red Alpha Wolf.

…_But …I don't regret that. If there's one thing… I do regret…_

He looks up toward his opponent, determined as ever.

_Even If I die doing it… I'll…_

Ken sensed the focus in his opponent,

_Those_ _eyes… looks like his will is as strong as ever. I'm actually enjoying this, Leon. But…_

_How on earth you plan to fight, Hrunting? Unless you do something about that bad arm of yours…_

"Get ready, DiFalco," Leon spoke suddenly, twirling his blades. Ken frowns as he saw the confident look in his face. "It's about time we truly settle this…"

He assumes a stance, different to what he had been using earlier. "…And see which of us the better man is."

(Play Yuki Kajiura – A Song of Storm and Fire)

Ken's eyebrows rise, though Leon was using weapon completely unfamiliar to him and that the form was modified for the weapons, recognized the stance he was using, but what really surprised him was it was formed in left handed position. Until that moment, Leon fought with right hand positions.

"These days I'm ambidextrous," Leon spoke, seeing the confusion his eyes. "But I used to be left handed."

Ken frowns, knowing how much one's technique can change dramatically when one variable is changed.

"I see… There's never a dull moment when it comes to fighting you."

Leon smirks for one moment, then frowns in concentration. Falcon does the same along with assuming his own stance.

The two stare down, the rain above was dissipating and the battles around them were drawing to their conclusions. Theirs too was about to follow.

---

"'**I am the bone of my sword**,'" Ken began, both eyes meet his opponent's. "'**Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.**'" He grips Griever's hilt in a carefully calculated hold.

---

Tom and Leanne continue to fight the N Dagger N despite their diminishing power supplies, Tom's Long Dagger fires both its shoulder mounted beam canon and rifle together, giving Leanne the cover she needs to make a saber attack on Robert's N Dagger N. But Kazi blocks the attempt with her captured saber, and she and Egan fire their 70mm. beam weapons together.

---

"'**I am the bone of my blade,'"** Trained in the same school of swordsmanship Leon recited the same creed, though some words were different. "'**Steel is my body, fire is my blood.**'"

---

Dunkel Cooper's Deep Forbidden fires his phonon maser canon, Melissa Mao's Duel Dagger blocks it with her block. With a loud cry, she lifts the shield as she thrusts her beamsaber at him. Dunkel sidesteps and counters with thrusting his trident, Melissa parries the weapon with her saber. Neither mobilesuit budge.

---

"'**I have created over a thousand blades,'"** Ken says, continuing the creed his master taught him. **"'Unknown to death…Nor known to life….'"**

---

Danny Fisk's was limited production mobilesuit was stood in front by a number of mass produced EURM mobilesuits. Fisk knew that all it took was one critical shot from one of them and he was dead, falling back was the smart thing to do but he doesn't. And despite knowing their chances of surviving this encounter, the EURM pilots stood their ground. With furious warcries, the two sides went at each other.

---

"'**I have shattered over a thousand blades,'" **Leon answers, reciting the creed taught to him.** "'Unaware of loss… Nor aware of gain.'"**

---

Dearka's Buster Dagger was in a stand off against Ramsus' Calamity, both were firing their weapons at each like heavily armed gunslingers. In contrast, Gai's Astray Blue Frame and Yazan's Sword Calamity locked blades like two bulls, occasionally shooting a beam blast.

---

"'**Have withstood pain to create many weapons…'"** Ken pulls out Griever,**"'yet, these hands will never hold anything.'"**

---

Elijah went to fight several Slaughter Daggers that joined in, despite using a fast becoming obsolete mobilesuit, Elijah was determined not to lose. For the memory his friend Goud Vair, he would not die so easily. Jean's custom M1 Astray and Jonas' Sword Calamity fought both skillfully and savagely, determined to prove who was right and who was wrong.

---

"'**Have endured pain to defeat many a foe…'"** Leon distances his legs from each other, placing both fists to his waist. **"'Waiting for one's arrival.'"**

---

"Why do you continue to be so stubborn?" Neo asks in an effort to work on their heads as he effortlessly evades Tim and Avir's attacks. "What do you boys think you can achieve by 'freeing' your nation from the alliance. All you're doing is causing is pain and suffering just like the Wolves of Wind did during the 58 Rebellion! For the sake of this nation I will eliminate those who threaten its existence!"

"No we're not!" Avir sneers, clashing his beam saber against Neo's. "You and the other OMNI asses are the real threat to our country and to the other nations who refuse to follow your alliance's demented ideals!"

"After what we've been through for the last few months," Tim grins while draw out a Kris beam saber. "I can understand why the Wolves chose their path, it's the turn the nation and the people they tried to protect to do the same!"

"And we say," Tim and Avir yell in unison. "Get out of our homeland!!!"

---

Ken swept his right foot behind his left, and drew back his blade in a two-handed grip, holding it vertically at eye level. **"'So, as I pray…'"**

Leon breaks into a sprint, his head was about two feet from the ground, and his arms spread out like wings as he went. **"'My whole life was…'"**

"'**Unlimited Blade Works!!!'"**

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_The Die was cast._

_There was no turning back. I was either going to kill or be killed._

_During that moment, I remembered every single person I cared for who was still alive. _

_I'd be lying if said I wasn't scared, because I was._

_I was scared to die, and scared of the grief my death would cause to those who I'll leave behind to pick up the pieces._

_From that fear, I found my resolve._

_I needed to survive._

_For my little Kariza, Sei, Master Shouka, Kazi, Robert, Danny, Lia, my mom who was going to be 56 soon. Even dad, even if we haven't talked for years now, he was still my dad, and for the memory of all those who had died in this war and the ones before it._

_For all their sakes, I wasn't going let my life be snuffed out so easily._

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**Blades collide, the sound of metal meeting metal was constant, and then whirls apart again in a flash of mirrored light. **

Kenneth DiFalco, former leader of the True ZAFT Faction, the Butcher Bird, The Grimaldi Falcon, wielding a mirror-polished katana, its hilt's red cloth braided over shark skin, the blades forged of a metal far stronger than steel.

Leon Gaiman, also known as the Red Alpha Wolf, Hrunting of the Wolves of Wind, carrying an equally glistening pair of Chinese weapons called deer-horn knives. The crescents that form the 'main' part of the blades were engraved with intricate engravings of a flower, lilies, and the head of a wolf on the ends. The smaller crescents that made the handles were wrapped similarly to the katana. By the way it easily absorbed impart from the Griever, Ken guessed it was made of a similar alloy as his own weapon.

The katana was named Griever, and her wielder was a young man with a scarred face and past, a man who moved with fluidity, speed, and understated power.

The knives, gripped by a man who was not its original owner, face calm… but his soul was in so much turmoil, the weapon's name was known to a very select few, it befitted the reputation of the Wind Wolf who once used them, one who fought with speed that rivals Griever's bearer, his followers or the man who wielded them now. Though the man who wields them was a bit slower, he still bore strength and variability in both mind and body in levels that slightly surpasses his opponent.

Both men moved with speed that was all but a blur to the human eye, only those with enhancements or those who're trained to sense them can track their movement.

Ken's Griever lashes off in a powerful backhand cut toward Leon's throat, only to be wedged an inch from him by blades of the unnamed knives. Gaiman counters with a leg sweep, DiFalco jumps back to avoid it, whirling away from the clash, ducking beneath the powerful blow Leon aims at him in return.

Ken returns to the offensive with a series of spiraling slashes, Leon in return parries and counters, their footsteps were like a choreographed dance. The attacks and counters were so swift that the blades actually made visible cuts through the rain.

Leon leans forward, and whips into a right-hand spiral, the right knife slamming its blade to Griever's descending edge. The blow would have knocked Griever out of Ken's hands… but he knew how to counter situations like this, letting his arm ride up along with it, he swiftly back flips, maintaining his grip and lifting him over Leon's left hand attack.

To his surprise, Leon continues to lunge forward, slamming his forehead against his chin. Ignoring the buzz in head, not mention the soreness he was feeling, the former ZAFT ace lowers himself in a crouch, avoid the follow-up attack that follow the head-butt.

Ken was about to counter when Leon aggressively strikes, forcing Griever down into the ground, and leaving Ken vulnerable for a one instant.

Gritting his teeth, Ken responds by dropping clear to the ground himself, then recovers his blade and roll to his right just in time to avoid being impaled.

Ken twists his body in a painful-looking bend, dodging another of Leon's strikes, then rolls onto his back, brought his legs over his hand, and dropped his feet onto Leon's right blade.

While Leon retrieves his weapon back with the loose cord attached to it, his torso left the floor in just as his feet touch down. And suddenly, he was back in guard position, blade held horizontal, with the hilt just to the left of his face. Leon assumes his own defensive stance.

It was almost as though their bodies were controlled by the same mind, for when Leon's left blade cuts through the air in a blow meant to slip beneath Ken's guard, opening his stomach, Ken took a single step forward, moving inside Leon's reach, and dropped his left elbow down onto Leon's left arm, forcing his knife to simply whir through air.

Leon again breaks into a sprint, his head close to the ground, and his arms followed behind him like wings, he swings both knives in a towards each other. Ken jumps back just before the blades touch his flesh, countering with a vicious backhand slash.

It was Ken's turn to be on the offensive, as Leon jumps away from his counter. Body turned sideways toward Leon, knees bent, sword held horizontally at face level and pointed at his opponent, he paces forward and thrusts.

Leon slides under the blade, then kicks Ken in the gut before rolling over his neck and goes back on his feet.

Both men distanced themselves, their eyes narrow at each other. Both men firmed their grips on their weapons.

---

_The end was near…_

---

The Falcon raises up his talon, _Watch over me, Laura… Murrue…_

While the Wolf, raises his fangs, _Watch over me, Yoshino… Sei…_

Both men launch themselves, with loud cries, they go for the kill.

---

…_The end is here_

---

Nine flashes occur in one second.

With that, their duel ended.

(End Yuki Kajiura – A Song of Storm and Fire)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Section Nine Sergeant Kurz Weber aims his rifle, **

Setting his sights on his first target, he looks on the main monitor for any EURM troops who may in avertedly get in the line of fire, and then goes back to the sniping aid.

His heart pounded, sending the rifle scope's cross hairs rising and falling over his target – Slaughter Dagger who seemed to be leading a small unit of Loyalist mobilesuits. The sniper waited for his pulse to settle.

As his concentration narrowed more and more on the accuracy of his first shot, as the pitch of his sight's crosshairs grew less and less erratic until the steadiness of a veteran marksman held the sight's center point steadily on the enemy squad commander.

The surprise of the rifle's discharge caused Karl on the other side of the hill to blink, and as he saw Kurz's bolt going into the town, Karl fires at the suddenly frozen figure close to where the Slaughter Dagger was.

The OMNI squad leader lay dead at the feet of his unit, a seventeen year old soldier, who had been assigned to the unit just a week ago, not far away. A third shot cracked, and another Slaughter Dagger rears with hole in abdomen.

The joint OMNI-government forces started to catch on of this unseen killer, bewildered. Seasoned soldiers wisely ducked down immediately. Knowing full well that shot was from a sniper's weapon. Others scramble for better cover behind the building, Karl and Kurz's shots followed them, claiming pilots in each report.

The rain partially obscured the city, but it did not provide the cover the OMNI and loyalist soldiers had hoped. The two S9 pilots' mobilesuits remain crouched in their positions, looking over the positions the enemy were. Watching heads pop from behind cover.

Kurz notices the EURM troops were moving out and the enemy was starting to move at them.

"Our boys are making their move," He commented to himself.

Almost as though he heard him, Hathcock replies with a shot that dropped a loyalist Primus, and Weber replies back with a crack that downed a strike Dagger. The two worked the weapons so rapidly that an enemy mobilesuit gets downed every two seconds.

After they down sixteen men, the enemy attempt to stop the EURM forces evaporated, the last several mobilesuits that formed the blocking force retreated back to the relative safety of the buildings but most were shot before they reach it. All the enemy fire was wild.

At one moment, one of the Slaughter Daggers flew off to escape. Just as he was about to disappear in the weakening torrent of rain, a beamrifle cracked from the hills, the Slaughter Dagger fell on its face with a hole on its back.

"Weber," Hathcock switches his radio on, keeping his eye on the scope. "How much power you got left?"

Kurz eyes his meter, "I'm good for couple dozen more shots, then I'll have to bug out. You?"

"I'm still good," Karl replies. "Hope, somebody decides to pick us up soon." He continues, "I don't want to have to use up all my ammo here."

"Well," Kurz began. "I guess we better–"

"Evil eyes, Evil eyes, this Ren Man 3-1," Melissa's voice suddenly cracked on the radio. "We have visual on the enemy's jamming unit, we can't get to it. It's all up you guys, she's in point Romeo moving north."

Instinctively Hathcock look into his sights, he spot what looked light a linear tank, except instead of a turret, it had bulky looking transmitting equipment on it. "Copy Red man 3-1, I have a visual, engaging target."

"Kurz!" The older sniper calls, "We better shoot that thing together, I bet that thing's got laminated armor, reset your beam output to maximum. Make it count 'cause we don't have much power left."

"Copy," Kurz pulls his keyboard and begins making the necessary adjustments.

"Ready?" Hathcock calls, looking into his sights.

"Ready," The S9 Sergeant replies, looking into his own sights.

"We'll take turns hitting it, fire after I shoot, don't stop until that thing's dead on its tracks."

"Right."

The rifle reports and Kurz Weber expected the vehicle to explode or at least stop, but after a broadside that slowed the vehicle for a moment, it began to speed up. The driver was probably flooring it. As Hathcock suspected it was coated in laminated armor.

Kurz took the next shot, the truck slowed but sped up again.

Hathcock fires the third shot, this time striking the treads of the vehicle. He could the tread being left behind but surprisingly, the vehicle kept moving.

Kurz pumps another one and Karl follows, yet the vehicle still kept moving.

"We'll shoot the center where the sections meet," Karl radios to his partner. "Make it damn count."

"Copy," Kurz sounded serious, he knew this was their last chance.

Taking one long, slow breath, Hathcock took careful aim, laying the center of his sight's reticle on the on the center of the vehicle. The ECM vehicle was now a battered wreck on one side, still it continues to move like nothing was wrong to it.

Kurz stares through his sights, bewildered. Surprised on how resilient this tracked vehicle was.

"On three," Karl calls. "One… Two… Three!"

As soon Hathcock yelled three, both mobilesuits fire, the beam bolts leave their barrels traveling a distance of almost ten miles and striking in the same place. The impact of the two shots breaks the vehicle into two, after dead drifting a bit, it finally stops, never to move again.

Kurz stares at the remains of the vehicle that took so much effort to destroy, "That's some tough new armor." He murmurs.

Karl nods, "We better get some stronger new long-range beamrifle. Sooner or later, our trusty Type 71-44s won't cut it."

That issue would be discussed later, right now, what mattered was that had just destroyed their enemies' main advantage. The two of them had single-handedly won the battle for their side.

The rain had now completely stopped, and the sky was starting to clear. On the horizon, the sun was beginning to rise, bringing forth a new day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Ken and Leon stood shoulder against shoulder, arms stretched out as they engaged their final blows.**

For several seconds, it was uncertain who had won. The result of the duel was revealed when the deer-horn knives slip out of his hands and Leon's legs gave way. Ken catches him, despite his own wounds he holds him up with one arm, letting the older lean against him.

"Well done…" Leon whispers faintly to him, smiling, despite knowing he lost. "You're the better man DiFalco… congratulations."

"The one who gave everything he's got to protect someone, even his own life." Ken shook his head, "No, you're the better man."

Leon smiles, "Thanks… not that it matters…"

"Commander DiFalco," He whispers, addressing him in ZAFT rank, his strength and vision beginning to fade. "If you ever find my daughter, tell her that I…"

He closes his eyes in mid sentence, Ken grunts when he felt Leon's full weight leaning on him. He manages to set him down, gently.

Ken lies next to Leon's body, breathless, tired and sore and with wounds and broken bones all over. He pats Leon on chest.

"It's best you her yourself, Gaiman." DiFalco pulls out his comlink, "Leanne, Tom? It me, arrange an immediate MedEvac…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Word of the CWDS unit's destruction quickly reaches Roanoke,**

He sighs, knowing that attacking any further would most probably be pointless.

"Ivan," The Phantom Pain officer shook his head, "Order all units… to retreat."

Neo breaks off from engagement from Tim and Avir's Secundus, "Looks like you've won this battle, enjoy this victory of yours, while you still can."

With that, Neo disengages from battle completely.

Tim stares at the prototype as it flew away, bewildered. "We… won…?"

Nearby, signal flares were being launched, and soon OMNI and government force began to fall back.

"Tim," Avir calls to his temporary squad leader. "That guy was telling truth, enemy forces are pulling back! We won!"

"I see…" Tim sinks into his chair, breathless. "Damn, I never fought so hard before…"

"Me neither," Avir admits. "No wonder Rick had a hard time fighting him, and we were double teaming him."

On screen, Avir takes off his helmet, smiling. "But hey, we survived. That's what matters."

Tim smiles back, "Yeah…"

"**Lucky bastards…"**

Yazan mumbles angrily, being force to retreat. His long time friends and partners, Dunkel and Ramsus were equally disgruntled. Their commander however, didn't seem to share his team's sentiments. He was just like he was before the battle began, calm and collective.

"**Major…"**

Kazi looks back, at the N Dagger N in the distance, despite the order and the EURM was fast encircling them, she didn't want to leave him. Leon was one of the few men who ever got so close to her.

"Kazi," Robert calls her, being as gentle as could. "We promised him to stay alive, remember?"

Kazi bit her lip, she forces herself to move out. "Right…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In an effort to stem the EURM's momentum, the Equatorial Union government and the OMNI Enforcer contingent supporting them attempt an ambush in a city just north of Pasir Ris, the EURM's main base in Singapore. Despite taking a EURM force by surprise, the rebel force had managed to stave off the attack and push the Joint government-OMNI force out of city.

According to EURM troops on the ground, they won the battle because a two-man mobile sniper team had given them excellent support, together destroying an estimated fifty mobilesuits and destroying the ECM combat vehicle the Joint government-OMNI force used to disable the EURM's communications and mobile weapons.

Orb volunteer, Karl Norman Hathcock II and mercenary Kurz Weber were given a hero's welcome when they returned, to their base in Pasir Ris.

The EURM had suffered heavy losses, 93 KIA, 214 WIA and 12 MIA (presumed captured). 40 mobilesuits, 22 vehicles and 7 aircraft destroyed. The government and OMNI contingent have failed to show casualty figures but according to reports coming from the EURM, over 150 men were found dead, at least 63 men were captured during the withdrawal, 41 of which are wounded varying from moderate to critical. And according undisclosed sources, the Joint OMNI-government force involved in the battle has lost about 80 percent of their mobilesuit forces.

It has been rumored that Atlantic Federation ace, Leon 'The Sandman' Gaiman was killed during the battle, though has yet to be confirmed.

–Excerpt from article by freelance journalist Jess Rabble for the EU Inquirer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leon slowly opens his eyes, he then blinks

_I'm… I'm alive… how…?_

He remained still, his eyes shift around to where he was, the room seemed empty.

_Where am I?_

Ignoring the pain all over, he pushes himself up to get a better idea of where was.

"So I'm in a hospital?" Leon murmurs. "I must be back in Malaysia…"

"I see you're already awake."

Leon turns to his right, he finds Lindsei Satou standing by the door wearing civilian clothes.

"Sei..." Leon whispers, words couldn't begin to describe how she was to see her. "So… How long I've been out?"

"Four days."

"How bad did the operation go?"

Sei looks to the side, seemingly hesitant. "It was a disaster."

Leon winces, though he was expecting that very answer.

He sighs, "I guess I better ready to find my girl's body soon…"

To his surprise, she shook her head, smiling. "No you're not."

He stares at her bewildered, "What are you–?"

She places finger on his lip, "Leon, she's here."

Those last two words hit him like train; he was in short, bowled over.

Sei turns her toward the door, "Kari, you can come in now."

Leon looks at to the door, his heart stopped when she saw her golden brown eyes, short black hair and a face full of innocence. Kari ran straight of the bed and jumps right in. Leon grabbed her, they hugged each tightly.

Leon could feel his body aching, but he didn't care. All that mattered to him right then and here was he had his little girl back, their daughter, one of the few things that mattered to him and Yoshino.

He cried. He was so happy that he cried.

The two starting talking the same time, asking each other how they've been, were doing okay, questions you'd normally associate with people trying to catch for lost years. But then, the last few months were probably an eternity to them.

Sei smiles, silently watching the two bond together.

At the door, a young man wearing a trench coat and an eyepatch leans in the door frame.

It didn't take long for Leon to catch sight of him, when he did, his mouth gaped wide open. "You…"

DiFalco smirks slightly, "Glad to see you're awake, Leon."

"Comm. DiFalco…? What're you doing in…?" Gaiman turns to Sei, "Where the hell are we?"

Sei smiles as she whispers, "Leon, we're in Pasir Ris."

**EUA Pasir Ris Hospital, EUA Pasir Ris, Singapore, Equatorial Union **

"We're in…?" Leon murmurs, bewildered, "Sei… why are you…?"

"I got here by helicopter couple of hours ago with Kari," She explains. "You're going to have to thank your sister about that and Kari."

Leon frowns, looking at Kari. "You were with your aunt Lia?"

Kari nods, "Yeah, aunt Lia got me from those Blue Cosmos goons just last night. She also said to you that she's taken care of the ones who kidnap me."

Her father blinks, "What do you mean she took…" his face froze, looking at Sei. "She didn't…"

Sei nods grimly, "The guys who kidnapped Kari should be in the crime news section or the obituary."

"Your sister handled the whole affair quite well." Ken DiFalco spoke, "The Blue Cosmos cell didn't know what hit them. Quick and very efficient, just what you expect from the leader of the Wolves of Wind."

Leon blinks, holding up his hand. "Wait a minute, the Wolves of Wind was disbanded soon after the 58 Rebellion ended. Black Wolf will never allow Lia to just–"

"Actually, Hrunting…" A woman with dark blonde hair and blue eyes walks into the room. "…Black Wolf chose her to lead the Wolves."

Leon looks at her with surprise, "Shusui…"

Shusui smiles as she sat on the side of the bed, stroking his hair. "It's been a while, Leon."

The confused father nods, "It has. What do you mean the Black Wolf 'chose her to lead'? Wasn't the group…?"

His old comrade shook head, "Simply a ploy, to throw off the enemies we've made during the war."

Leon couldn't believe what he was hearing, his eyes narrow. "Then wasn't _I_ at least informed? Do you realize what I went through because I thought I had no one to go to for help?"

Shusui looks down on the floor, "Black Wolf wanted you two to live a peaceful life, that's the reason why he chose Lia to lead the Wolves over you and Yoshino… and why we never told the truth of the disbanding."

"I can understand why you're angry," Shusui's grips on the cloth of the bed sheet. "If you knew, none of this would probably have happened. And you didn't have to do any of the terrible things they made you do. I'm sorry for that."

She looks at her old comrade in the eyes, "But please understand, Lord Shouka did what he felt was best for you and Yoshino."

Hearing her out, Leon's anger softened, "Then why didn't you act immediately on this?"

Shusui looks away, mortified, "We're not as good as we used to be in detecting these matters. You hid your entry into the EU very well, we didn't knew you were in the country, until last month."

That answer pretty much killed all the anger in Leon's heart.

"I see…" He suddenly felt mortified, suddenly having the desire to kick himself.

_You're Kari's father, dumb ass. The Wolves aren't responsible for her, YOU are. So don't go blaming them._

"…Sorry…"

Shusui shook her head, managing herself to smile. "Forget it, there's plenty of blame to go around."

Leon then looks the man who until last night was the one he had to kill, "And where do you fit into this, Commander?"

Ken nods, "Your sister, Lia, contacted me. She told me in exchange for the names of all Blue Cosmos members in the EU and in the East Asian Republic that if you came to kill me, that I would take you in alive."

The older man stares at him, "I'm not sure what you do these days, DiFalco, but I'm pretty sure that you can do that on your own."

DiFalco nods admittedly, "True, but what she promised me would be enough to save my intelligence teams months of information gathering. I am sure you are familiar with the risks in those kinds of things."

Gaiman nods his head, "Speaking of killing me, how did you… That last move you pulled, should've killed me. I know you used full force in that _Tsubame Gaeshi_, and that should have been fatal."

Ken nod admittedly, "Yes, it would have definitely killed you."

"This is," He then gives Leon one of his rare smiles, "If I used my sword the right way."

Leon blinks, Ken motions him to look at chest. The older man does just that, and was surprised to what he found, three deep bruises, clearly where the Griever touched his skin.

Confused at first, Gaiman quickly realizes their meaning, and smiles. "You devious little… you used the reverse edge of your blade."

"Exactly."

Leon laughs a bit, shaking his head. "So… I guess I'm now a prisoner of the EURM, huh?"

"You've been one for the last few months." DiFalco make a gesture of decline, "No, You can leave as soon as your injuries heal if you wish."

"Or if you want," Another person enters the room. "You can always volunteer."

Leon sees a young man he hasn't seen in weeks, "Well, well, isn't it the EURM poster boy."

Rick Chung frowns, "Stop calling me that already."

"I'll think about it…" The older Equatorial smiles, "I guess you know the full story now huh?"

The young EURM soldier nods.

"I see…" He then shook his head, "And about joining the EURM, I was planning to go join before this whole mess started but… I'm not real sure now. Especially now after the stuff I've done in last few months."

Rick grins, "Oh, that. Well you don't have to worry about that, especially when people find out how OMNI Enforcer maintained your 'loyalty'."

"We started leaking information to the media," Shusui adds, stroking young Kariza's hair. "It won't be long for people to be putting two and two together."

"Like DiFalco said," Sei said. "Lia handled this real well."

"Yeah…" Leon murmurs, nodding. He looks toward Shusui, "Tell her I said thank you and I owe her."

Shusui nods, she then stood up. "I have to be going now, I see you."

"Can I see you and master…" He looks around to the others.

Shusui smiles to her fellow Wolf, "It's alright to address him by his real name now, and yes, master Shouka and I still live in the same place, 'til then, Goodbye."  
He shook his head, watching her leave. "The Wind Wolves are still around huh? The EURM is in better hands than I thought."

"They've been a huge help to the EURM, they're our eyes and ears in the government since the start." Rick comments. "Y'know Gaiman, you'd be a great boost to morale if you join our ranks."

Leon looks at him, "Thanks for giving me this chance, there's no way I can turn it down."

Rick grins, "I'll let Gen. Kowen and Maj. Bauer know that you've accept the offer."

The older man blinks, also grinning. "Kowen and Bauer are still in the army? Tell those two dinosaurs that I said hello, okay?"

"You know the general and the major?"

"Hell yeah I do, I could tell you some interesting stories…" Leon chuckles, "Though I think they won't be happy if they find out."

He then hears murmuring at the door, Leon looks to that direction. "Is there somebody else out there, or is that just regular hospital activity?"

"Nah," One voice replies as three people enter. "You just have quite a lot of visitors out here."

Leon again sat up in surprise, hissing in the pain. "Kazi, Rob… Dan…? What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"We found out your story in the news and in the net," Kazi replies.

Leon winces, "Sorry… that I didn't tell you guys earlier."

"Forget it, we understand." She replies, "How're you doing Major?"

"I'm fine," Gaiman tries to stomach all of the large portions information being shoved at him. "So, you guys all defected? What about your families?"

Rakuzanka smiles, "Its okay, sir. Actually, I have confession to make. I'm a member of the RPLA."

Leon bats an eye, "Republic of Poland Liberation Army…? …Since when?"

"Ever since the end of the Bloody Valentine War, and my family's actually been living in Orb."

"What about you, Danny?"

The Californian shook his head, "I don't mind."

Leon doesn't bother asking Rob because he already knew his answer, Egan was an abandoned child who grew up in an orphanage, he didn't have a past to go back to.

So instead, he addresses all of them, "Have all of you thought this through?"

The trio nod without hesitation or regret.

He gives then a dimpled look, "Hope you three know what you're doing."

"I thought of leaving the AF to start with," Robert replies.

"I haven't seen my husband two daughters for so long," Kazi murmurs

"It's not like I have much family left anyway," Danny then grins, adding, "Besides, I heard the surfing in Orb's like in Hawaii."

"Hey Egan," a young female voice announces the arrival of yet more people. "Is surfing the only thing that guy ever thinks about?"

Egan looks to the door to see Leanne Eldridge and Tom Delaney enter the crowding room. "Yeah, that's pretty much it, he's a beach bumpkin after all."

Everyone laughs.

Tom looks to Leon, giving a bow respect. "Maj. Gaiman, I like to give these back to you."

Delaney hands him something wrapped in a black cloth, when Leon held the covered item, he instantly recognized the weight and the shape he felt.

"The Bakuya and Kansho?" He undoes the cloth, revealing the deer-horn knives he used during his battle with DiFalco. He saw the blades were redone.

"I did a little work on them while you were unconscious," Tom began. "I polished the blades and changed the handgrips. I hope don't mind sir."

"Tom couldn't help himself, sir." Leanne said with a grin. "He was like a little kid with something new, when he first saw them."

Delaney scowls at her, them looks back at the man on the bed, "I was amazed by their craftsmanship, their masterworks as far I'm concerned. I could always bring it back the way it was if you prefer that way."

Leon examined the blades, with blade polished, the subtle difference of the weapons showed. The blade of Kansho was glistening white, while Bakuya was of a bluish shade, "No… this should be fine, I was hoping to look for the smith who made these weapons to restore it." He looks toward Tom. "Thank you."

Delaney bows his head, "I'm glad you're pleased with them."

"So they're named Bakuya and Kansho," Ken murmurs, seeing the slight contrast of color, "Named after the twin blades of the Spring and Autumn legend in Chinese History. Each blade represents the contrasting forces of the theory of Yin Yang, an apt name."

Gaiman nods, "They're a fitting name to their old owner as well, she was just no matter unforgivable the crime."

Leanne blinks, "These aren't your own weapons?"

The man shook his head, still looking at the blades, "They belong to my wife. In the Wolves of Wind, she was known as Gáe Buidhe, the Golden Wolf of Mortality. She too was an Alpha Wolf."

"I used Bakuya and Kansho because I needed to keep DiFalco off balance," He continued. "I presumed that I had a chance DiFalco if I used a weapon he never fought against before."

"It almost worked," Ken commented. "And I almost died because of it."

"That reminds me," Leon smiles at him, "You're truly something, DiFalco, despite the fact I killed you five times last night, you're still alive."

That remark earned a perplexed look from everyone in the room, including DiFalco.

"The double Tsubame Gaeshi you blocked was just a diversion." Leon began, looking at Ken knowingly. "The real attack was Zabaniya – Technique of the Delusional Heartbeat."

Falcon stared at him, at a loss. "One of the hallmark assassination techniques of Chūjō-Ryū, Zabaniya uses the force of an attack to deliver an invisible and fatal blow to the heart. That means those six attacks… No wonder I felt so weak after that…"

Leon nods, "I think one missed, but still, you survive five stabs to the heart. Your mechanical heart should have been more susceptible. But apparently, you have a well-built heart along with good condition training. One Zabaniya is usually enough to kill a normal person."

Ken blinked, realizing fours nights ago, he had to die five times to beat one man, five for one man.

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**Just outside of Los Angeles, California, Atlantic Federation**

The quiet of the Californian countryside night was shattered by the sound of gunfire. The source of the disturbance came from a large country house. Its owner, a rich businessman based in the city. The shooting continued, muzzle flashes of guns firing rapidly were visible in the distance.

Guards littered the house's grounds, they were either bleeding to death from grave wounds or simply dead. Despite being military-trained and armed with high powered guns and body armor, all it took was three people to take them all down.

Inside the house, Gerard Cardinal, a relatively small-time Blue Cosmos member, had his back against the wall in fear as the unknown intruder had finished off his last guard.

"W-what…" Cardinal stammers, struggling to even speak. "W-what do you want?-!"

The intruder was a woman with golden brown eyes and long, wavy, ash brown hair. She wore a black dress suit and a dark blue floral shirt.

Lia stares at Cardinal, the man's eyes widen and his fear grew as he saw the weapon she held.

It was a katana, the blade so well-polished that it was almost like a mirror, the hilt bound with white cloth braided over the shark skin which was there for grip.

She was about to say something, when the sound of approaching footsteps interrupted her.

Several men armed with submachineguns and handguns rush toward the top floor office for their boss, the doors rips open letting the men in.

"Bastard!" One yelled as they all fire, Cardinal dove for it. The room quickly filled with gunfire, smoke and dust.

Lia breaks to a sprint, using her speed to evade and her sword to deflect.

"Argh…!" The blade carves through one guard's shoulder in a downward cut.

"She's behind us!"

What followed was a macabre sword dance. Lia cuts through every single one of them as though they were just standing there waiting to die.

As she fought – or more appropriately, slaughtered – the door opposite to the one the guards bursts open, a tall man with black hair, several individual strands dangled on his face, his brown eyes seem cold, calculating. The tall man wore a dark blue suit, the buttons closest to the collar undone.

As Hajime Saito walks in, scans the room and snorts, "Hardly worth the trouble…"

"But…"He grips the hilt of his katana, he dashes to one hapless guards and rolls out his sword. The guard's head lops off the body as though it was a hat. "…can't let our boss die now call we?"

Together, the two made short work of the room full of guards. In a mere few seconds, it was almost over.

Lia drives her blade into the last guard's chest, she whispers, "Aku Soku Zan."

She then twists the blade and cuts the last guard halfway from the middle of the stomach, a tear ran down her left cheek

"Swift death to Evil."

She silently wipes her blade with a cloth, when she was done Lia walks toward Cardinal.

"Let this…" She looks down to Cardinal, murmuring with tone that could freeze blood, "Let this be your one and only warning, don't you dare touch Leon Gaiman, his daughter or anyone acquainted with them. Or else… you can run, you can hide but you can never escape the grasp of the Wolves of Wind."

With that, she walks away, Saito following her.

Back where they left Cardinal, the man still shivered fear and had just realized he wetted himself.

Outside, Jake Linas stood at the door, seeing his two companions go down the stairs. He wore an unbuttoned brown shirt, a white t-shirt underneath and jeans, his blonde hair was bound by a ponytail. The guards he had dealt with were all lying on the ground with crossbow bolts sticking out of their bodies, his unassuming light green eyes looked at them calmly.

"Is done?" He asks, as the two approach him.

Lia simply nods.

"I see…"

As they pass him, he follows behind.

The three head toward the front, where the mobilesuits they came in with were. Two GAT-02L2 Dagger Ls armed with Aile Strikers and metal-grey mobilesuit that obviously used Phase-Shift Armor, that interestingly resembled True ZAFT's GAT-X105 Strike…

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**"So what is it that you want to discuss with me?" **

Leon Gaiman asks the young eye-patch Ken DiFalco who was in his bedside, He only person in the room besides him was Rick Chung, who sat next to Ken. Sei left with Kari, who fell asleep while she was with her father. Rob, Kazi and Danny seem to have found a place within the EURM mobile forces already and were busy in the mobilesuit bay with Tom and Leanne.

Ken didn't answer immediately, Leon noted he seemed to be carefully thinking of words he should say.

"To be honest," DiFalco decided to go direct and straight to the point. "We'd like you to join a group…"

After Ken said what had to be said, which took about six minutes, he asks Leon the critical question, "Leon Gaiman, would you be willing to join Section Nine?"

Leon stares at him, astonished. "So, you're 'the Major' huh? You've been pretty busy."

"Our current resources and funds are paltry at best, Gaiman," Rick speaks out. "We could use guys like you, Ms. Satou and your men."

Leon looks at them, "Have you asked them too?"

Ken nods, "They've made their decisions. Of course, I can't tell what choices they chose, this is a decision you should make on your own. I completely understand if you decline, your daughter is your main priority after all."

"So," Ken says finally. "What is it going to be, Hrunting?"

Leon stares at them, his eyes then shift towards the picture on the nightstand beside his bed. The picture was a photo of him, Yoshino and their daughter, he carried that same picture into every battle he fought during the Bloody Valentine War as well as the battles he fought in this war.

His eyes focused on it, Leon Gaiman seemed to be lost in thought.

Abruptly, he snaps back to reality, looking toward "The Major" and Rick Chung.

Without uncertainty, frustration or repentance, Leon Gaiman responds.

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**A/N: **

Several more characters made some cameos here:

Shusui and mention of Lord Shouka Kou from Saiunkoku Monotagari/ Cloud Color Palace by Kaira Yura, Sai Yukino and Geneon

Jake Linas (or better known by people in America as Janus) from Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth by SquareEnix

Hajime Saito from Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki and SPE Visual Works

Kurz Weber, Sousuke Sagara and Melissa Mao from Full Metal Panic by Shoji Gatoh

**---**

**Note:** as of the time I'm writing this, I have never watched the anime or read the manga for FMP, so if the SRT members are acting OOC, sorry, I was working with badly limited info. I chose to use them largely because they were featured in **Ominae's Owaru Day by Day** Cry of the Falcon Sidestory. I was only recently got interested in this series but have yet to actually see it, but I wanted to feature them here and get some practice with them in case I'll do some fanfic work on FMP in the future – judging from the synopsis I'm reading all over the net, I just might. (Grins)

---

Well anyhow, I'm planning of making a follow up pre-CotF Sidestory while I'm doing my own ongoing AU, **Gundam Seed: Iron Brotherhood**. Its title will be, **Cry of the Falcon: Spirit Astray**. It'll start off as a collection of one shots of different Section Nine operations and events before the 2nd BVW, then after several chapters I'll skip to the "Break the World" and the story really kick off. Cross your fingers that I'll have enough time to do this though.

The Watchman here, heading out!


End file.
